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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


GOETHE'S  FAUST 


A  Fragment  of  Socialist  Criticism 


BY 

MARCUS   HITCH 


9J9 


CHICAGO 
CHARLES  H,  KERR  &  COMPANY 

1908 


Copyright  1908 
By  Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Company 


0 


,-The  "Divinity  that  shapes  our  ends"  is  Mankind 
itself,  which  is  both  the  author  and  actor  of  its  own 
Mrama   (Marx).     But    in    the    class    society    called.-. 
"Civilization"  what  is  comedy  for  the  rich  is  tragedy   j 
foFThe  poor.     The  class  character  of  this  civilization   i' 
is  reflected  in  its  poetry,  as  well  as  in  its  other  in-  j 
tellectual  creations,  and  a  clear  understanding  of  this 
fact  is  useful,  both  to  curb  the  insolent  pretensions 
of   the   oppressors,    who   assume    to    portray   "uni- 
versal" human  nature,  and  to  arouse  the  spirits  of 
the  oppressed  who  are  destined  to  recast  the  great 
Human    Drama   and    usher    in    a    different   kind    of 
"Civilization"  and  Literature. 


GERMAJi 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

I.       AN   OUTLINE  OF   PART   1 7 

II.       OUTLINE   OF    PART    II 16 

III.  COMMENTS    36 

IV.  THE  MODEL  COLONY:   FREEDOM 87 

V.       THE    GRETCHEN    TRAGEDY 105 

VL       GOETHE  AND  MILTON 116 


GOETHE'S  FAUST. 


CHAPTER  I. 

AN  OUTLINE  OF  PART  I. 


N 


/  Goethe's  Faust  is  the  story  of  a  man  in  \ 

('  the  pursuit  of  happiness  and  the  satisfac-  ] 
tion  of  his  impulses,  which  pursuit  in  a 
,  broad  sense  is  the  chief  occupation  of  all 
of  us.  It  is  in  dramatic  form  and  is  labeled 
a  tragedy,  with  as  little  propriety  as  Dan- 
te's Vision  is  called  a  comedy.  The  only 
tragedy  about  it  is  contained  in  the  first  part, 
and  this,  though  it  is  the  shorter  and  less 
important  part,  is  the  ony  part  that  is  ever 
acted  on  the  stage  or  that  is  widely  known. 
Taking  both  parts  together  from  first  to 
last  it  will  not  be  denied  that  a  most  inter- 
esting series  of  questions  is  presented  by 
this  work  and  that  it  furnishes  abundant 
food  for  reflection.  There  is  the  longing  of 
the  human  soul  for  freedom,  knowledge  and 


GOETHE'S  FAUST 


satisfaction,  which  when  allowed  to  run 
wild  leads  to  the  contract  with  the  devil 
(so-called)  ;  the  question  of  personal  re- 
sponsibility, of  free-will  and  necessity,  and 
their  reconciliation;  the  "perseverance  of 
the  saints,"  or  the  victory  of  good  over  evil 
in  the  individual,  because  the  individual  is 
a  unit;  the  reverse  of  this  law  in  societary 
life  because  society  is  not  a  unit,  and  the_ 
social  institutions  prevailing  at  any  partic- 
ular time  are  contemplated  by  the  domi- 
nant part  of  society  as  supernatural  instead 
of  having  only  a  local  and  temporary  valid- 
ity, and  hence  every  material  modification 
thereof  which  is  forced  by  the  march  of 
history  appears  a  victory  of  the  bad;  the 
tragedy  based  on  the  efifect  of  one  individ- 
hial's  acts  upon  another  under  certain  social 
(conditions;  the  question  of  the  direct  deal- 
ings of  supernatural  powers  with  men ;  the 
idea  of  the  conquest  of  nature ;  of  the  moral 
i  influence  of  the  beautiful ;  the  idea  of  a 
perfect  or  relatively  perfect  social  State 
based  on  benevolence ;  the  idea  of  the  salva- 
tion of  unrepentant  men  by  repentant  wo- 
men; the  future  life  of  the  soul  apart  from 


AN   OUTLINE   OF   PART   I  9 

the  material  universe ;  these  are  some  of  the 
matters  which  occupied  Goethe's  mind  dur- 
ing the  fifty-seven  years,  ofif  and  on,  while 
he  was  writing  Faust  and  which  are  re- 
flected in  the  work.  We  shall  comment  on 
some  of  these  matters  later.  For  the  pres- 
ent we  give  a  brief  outline  of  Faust's  chase 
after  happiness. 

Dr.  Heinrich  Faust,  a  medieval  German 
professor,  is  sitting  in  his  dingy  study  room 
the  Saturday  night  before  Easter.  It  is  late 
and  the  moon  shines  in  at  the  window.  He 
reflects  that  he  has  studied  philosophy,  law, 
medicine,  and  alas,  also  theology.  Though 
he  has  become  a  learned  doctor  in  all  these 
branches,  he  finds  himself  no  wiser  and  no 
happier  than  before.  In  fact  he  has  lost  all 
pleasure  in  existence.  Much  learning  hath 
made  him  mad.  Not  only  has  he  failed  to 
gain  true  knowledge,  but  he  has  also  failed 
to  gain  either  wealth  or  honor  among  men. 
In  despair  he  turns  to  magic,  hoping  to  dis- 
cover the  secret  forces  of  nature,  the  germs 
of  all  power.  In  brooding  over  this  subject 
he  becomes  despondent  and  is  finally  on  the 
point  of  committing  suicide  by  poison  when 


10  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

he  is  startled  by  the  chiming  bells  of  paster 
morning  and  by  a  chorus  of  angels'  voices 
which  recall  the  happiness  of  his  youthful 
days  and  cause  him  to  put  down  the  cup 
and  desist  from  his  intention.  The  Easter 
chorus  is  certainly  beautiful  enough  to  lift 
even  the  hardened  sinner  clean  ofif  the  earth. 

As  Dante,  following  Christ,  descends  into 
hell  on  the  night  of  Good  Friday  to  rise 
into  the  earthly  paradise  on  Easter  morn- 
ing; so  Faust  on  the  Saturday  night  before 
Easter  descends  into  the  mental  hell  of  de- 
spair and  is  aroused  to  new  hope  on  Easter 
morning  by  a  chorus  of  angels.  After  one 
has  read  the  Divine  Comedy  and  Faust 
every  recurring  Easter  calls  up  to  his  mind 
the  powerful  emotions  produced  by  the 
opening  pages  of  these  great  works. 

A  charming  picture  of  Easter  holiday  in 
Germany  is  then  given,  which,  to  be  fully 
appreciated,  must  have  been  experienced. 
Faust  takes  a  walk  about  the  suburbs  with  i 
one  Wagner  whose  dull  philistinism  con- 
trasts sharply  with  Faust's  dreaminess. 
They  witness  the  various  classes  of  people^ 
amusing  themselves  in  dififerent  ways,  care-J 


AN   OUTLINE   OF   PART   I  H 

less  and  happy.  As  evening  approaches  they 
return.    A    queer-acting    black  poodle  dog 
circles  round  them  and  finally  follows  them 
home  to  Faust's  study  and  lies  down  be-_ 
hind  the  stove. 

The  peace  of  mind  brought  on  by  Easter 
does  not  last  long.  Faust  soon  finds  himself 
yearning  again  for  something  more  than 
earth  affords  and  seeks  the  light  of  divine 
revelation.  He  takes  the  New  Testament 
and  proposes  to  translate  it  from  the  orig- 
inal into  German.  Starting  with  the  Gospel 
of  St.  John  he  writes:  "In  the  beginning 
was  the  word."  He  stops  to  consider.  No, 
not  the  "word,"  the  "sense";  no,  the 
"power."  Still  it  does  not  suit  him.  Fin- 
ally he  hits  it;  the  "deed."  He  writes  again: 
"In  the  beginning  was  the  deed." 

The  black  poodle  dog  interrupts  him  so 
much  that  he  has  to  stop  and  watch  his 
actions.  He  tries  to  control  him  by  magic 
and  is  astonished  to  sec  him  swell  up  and 
undergo  a  transformation  until  finally  Me- 
phistopheles  in  the  garb  of  a  travelling 
scholastic  steps  from  behind  the  stove  with„ 


13  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

a  chipper  salutation.  This  was  the  'poodle's 
kernel. 

Mephistopheles  is  an  Evil  Spirit,  who  is 
described  as  one  who  "wills  the  bad  and 
works  the  good,"  and  had  previously  ob- 
tained leave  of  the  Lord  to  tempt  Faust  in 
a  manner  recalling  the  story  of  Job  in  the 
Bible.  The  Lord  gives  him  a  free  hand, 
having  confidence  that  Faust's  innate  tend- 
ency towards  the  good  will  prevail  in  spite 
of  his  errors.  "Man  will  err  as  long  as  he 
^triyes."  Mephistopheles  is  not  so  much  a 
direct  tempter  as  the  spirit  of  rebelliousness 
and  self-indulgence.  He  merely  procures 
for  Faust  everything  he  wishes  and  lets  him 
take  the  consequences.  After  Gretchen's 
imprisonment,  when  Faust  is  wild  with  re- 
morse and  is  cursing  Mephistopheles,  he 
silences  Faust  by  asking,  "Did  I  thrust  my- 
self upon  you  or  did  you  thrust  yourself 
upon  me?"  Who  was  it  that  ruined  her, 
I  or  you?"  Such  is  the  spirit  that  emanated 
from  the  black  poodle  dog  and  confronted 
Faust  after  he  turned  to  the  study  of  magic. 

Faust  is  so  determined  to  have  happiness 
and  satisfaction  at  any  price  that  he  con- 


AN   OUTLINE   OF    PART    I  13 

sents  to  sell  his  soul  to  Mephistopheles  if 
ever  he  shall  realize  happiness  so  as  to  be 
able  to  say  to  the  passing  moment,  "Stay, 
thou  art  fair."    The  bargain  is  made  and 
signed  with  Faust's  blood.   They  are  about 
to  leave  the  old  study  den.   While  Faust  is 
getting    himself    ready   and    changing   his 
clothes  for  a  :Mephisto  suit,  Mephistopheles 
dons  the  Doctor's  robe,  assumes  his  place 
and  entertains  one  of  Faust's  pupils  with 
much  wise  counsel,  delivered  with  a  mock-    • 
gravity  that  could  hardly  be  surpassed  by  a^ 
University  professor.    In  fact,  no  one  but  a 
bourgeois  political  economist  could  equal  it. 
A  fitting  climax  is  given  to  this  inimitable 
piece  of  irony  when  Mephistopheles  in  dis- 
missing his  pupil    finally   (with  a  sardonic 
grin  we  imagine)  discloses  his  own  identity 
by  writing   in   the   young   man's   album   a 
quotation  from  Gen.  III.  5:    "And  ye  shall 
be  as  gods,  knowing  good  and  evil." 

Being  now  ready,  they  sally  forth,  a  no- 
ble pair  of  brothers  in  deviltry,  ready  for) 
anything  that  comes  along.  They  are  to  see 
the  world;  first,  the  little  world  of  the  in- 
dividual.^ (Part  I),    and    then  the  greater 


14  GOETHE'S  PAUST 

world  of  social  life  (Part  II.)  Faust,  who 
has  spent  his  life  over  books,  feels  his  lack 
of  manners  and  knowledge  of  life.  Mephis- 
topheles  reassures  him  by  the  assertion  that 
self-confidence  is  the  only  art  of  life. 

In    Auerbach's    Wine    Cellar  in  Leipzig 
they  meet  with  a  roomful  of  students  whose 
idea  of  happiness  is  to  get  roaring  drunk. 
Mephistopheles   lends   a  helping  hand  and 
this  kind  of  happiness  soon  reaches  its  cli- 
max in  the  words  of  one  of  the  company:  ; 
"Happy  as  the  cannibals, 
Like  five  hundred  swine  we  swill." 
This  does  not  satisfy  Faust;    After  being 
rejuvenated   in   the   witch's   kitchen,   he    is 
next  drawn  into  a  love  affair  with  Gretchen.  i 
It  is  the  old,  old  story  of  seduction,  aban-  | 
donment,  incidental  murder  of  the  mother 
and  brother  of  the  girl,  infanticide,  impris- 
onment, conviction,  insanity  and  death  of 
the  innocent  of  the  two  and  the  escape  of 
the  guilty. 

/After    killing  Gretchen's    brother,  Faust 

/and  Mephistopheles    betake  themselves    to 

/    the   Harz   mountains   to   take   part   in   the 

■   witches'  dance  on  Walpurgis  night.     This 


AN   OUTLINE    OF    PART   I  15 

and  other  matters  furnish  a  diversion  until 
/they  hear  that  Gretchen  after  wandering 
\about  as  an  outcast  for  a  year  is  now  in 
prison  awaiting  execution  for  infanticide. 
This  brings  Faust  to  his  senses  for  the  time 
being  and  he  tries  to  rescue  her.  But  she 
refuses  to  leave  the  jail,  trusting  herself 
rather  to  the  judgment  of  God  than  to  any 
human  aid. 

The  curtain  falls  on  Part  I.  Faust  has 
gone  through  the  experience  of  sensual 
pleasures.   Still  he  is  nojt  happy.^ 


CHAPTER  II. 

OUTLINE  OF  PART  II. 

Part  I  is  not  divided  into  regular  acts. 
Part  II  is  divided  into  five  acts,  and  deals 
with  social  and  political  rather  than  indi- 
vidual life.  It  is  largely  allegorical  and  is 
not  adapted  for  production  on  the  stage ; 
but  an  acquaintance  with  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  in  order  to  come  to  a  fair  judg- 
ment of  Goethe  and  his  work. 

The  opening  scene  describes  the  beauty 
of  nature  and  its  healing  powers  in  restor- 
ing Faust,  after  his  hard  experiences,  to  a 
normal  mental  and  moral  condition.  The 
wonderful  description  of  a  sunrise  in  the 
Alps  indicates  that  Faust  has  made  a  new 
start  in  life.  He  applies  the  precept  of  Mar- 
cus Aurelius :  — 

"Consider  thyself  to  be  dead  and  to  have 

completed  thy  life  up  to  the  present  time; 

and  live  according  to  nature  the  remainder 

16  -^ 

i 


OUTLINE   OF  PART   II  17 

which  is  allowed  thee,"  or  in  the  words  of 
Faust  to  Helena :  — 

"Let  the  past  be  put  behind  us." 

Faust  next  appears  at  the  Imperial  Court, 
where  Mephistopheles  assumes  the  role  oi 
clown  or  court  jester.  Since  all  branches 
of  the  government  are  in  a  bad  way  for  lack 
of  money  Faust  with  the  aid  of  Mephisto- 
pheles  supplies  the  deficiency  by  the  issue 
of  paper  money,  based,  as  Mephistopheles 
explains,  on  the  accumulated  treasures  of 
the  past  which  lie  hidden  in  the  ground 
ready  to  be  digged  up  as  needed. 

Faust  now  enjoys  honor  and  fame  as  a 
court  favorite.  This  unlimited  supply  of 
money  enables  the  Emperor  to  donate  to 
each  one  money  enough  to  procure  what 
he  wants. 

One  wants  a  mistress;  one  a  finer  grade 
of  wine ;  one  a  castle ;  the  miser  simply 
adds  his  new  money  to  his  hoards  of  old. 
It  does  not  appear  here  what  Faust  would 
do  with  his  share,  but  this  is  brought  out 
in  the  sequel. 

As  Ash  Wednesday  is  approaching  the 
Court  witnesses  the  celebration  of  the  Car- 


18  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

nival.     A  beautiful    Italian   masquerade  is 
here  given,  full  of  ingenious  allegories.   The 
Emperor  and  his  Court  are  desirous  of  see- 
ing the  play  of  Helena  and  Paris,  the  model 
forms   of   male   and  female  beauty.    Faust 
with  the    help    of  Mephistopheles,    brings 
them  up  from  the  world  of  spirits  and  Faust 
experiences  a  new  sensation  of  happiness  in 
the  contemplation  of  ideal  classical  beauty. 
The  play  being  over,  as  Helena  is  about  to 
leave  the   stage,   Faust,  unable  to  restrain 
himself,  reaches  out  his  hands  to  grasp  her. 
An  explosion  follows  which  hurls  Faust  to 
the  ground,  leaving  him  unconscious,  and 
the  spirits  of  Helena  and  Paris  go  off  in 
smoke.   We  shall  meet  Helena  again  in  the 
third  act. 

Act  H.  After  these  fairy  scenes  at  court, 
they  return  to  Faust's  dingy  old  study  den. 
While  Faust  is  still  in  a  trance  from  the 
effect  of  the  explosion,  Mephistopheles 
looks  around.  The  room  and  surroundings 
are  unchanged,  but  the  traveling  scholar 
v^ho  formerly  received  Mephistopheles' 
counsel  so  meekly,  has  blossomed  out  into 
a  conceited  Bachelor  of  Arts   who  imagines 


OUTLINE   OF   PART   II  ]9 

that  the  earth,  sun,  moon  and  stars  all 
leaped  into  being  merely  at  his  behest.  He 
out-trumps  Mephistopheles  himself  by  de- 
claring that  no  devil  dare  exist  except  by 
his  (Baccalaureus')  permission;  that  it  is 
youth  only  which  accomplishes  anything; 
that  "Man  is  at  thirty  dead,  or  all  the  same." 
Whereupon  IMephistopheles  remarks  that 
there  is  nothing  left  here  for  the  devil  to 
say;  but  adds  that  the  devil  is  quite  an  old 
gentleman  and  that  Baccalaureus  after 
growing  older  and  more  experienced  will 
understand  him  better. 

Meanwhile  Wagner,  the  dull,  plodding 
Philistine,  has  been  delving  into  the  deep- 
est secrets  of  nature  and  thinks  he  has  fin- 
ally succeeded  in  solving  the  mystery  of  life 
by  making  a  homunculus  or  living  manikin 
in  a  glass  bottle.  He  declares  that  he  has 
abolished  the  love  passion  and  the  old  way 
of  generation  and  has  discovered  the  art  of 
making  men  as  one  makes  crystals.  "Well," 
says  IVIephistopheles,  "there  is  nothing  new 
about  that;  I  have  met  crystalized  men  my- 
self." 

[Ah,  Goethe,  did  you  realize  that  in  hold- 


20  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

incr  up  to  ridicule  Wagner's  Homunculiis  or 
little  crystalized  man  in  a  glass  bottle,  you 
were  only  picturing  yourself,  the  crystalized 
man  of  the  Property  Epoch,  corked  up  in  a 
Property  Bottle. 

"Essentially  distinct,  the  Natural 
Finds  in  the  Universe  no  resting  place ; 
The  Artificial  needs  restricted  space." 
Your  artificial  and  crystalized  Property, 
artificial  Military  State,  artificial  Contract 
and  Court  system,  artificial  Family  and 
Bastardy  system,  artificial  War  and  Trade 
system,  are  the  glass  bottle  in  which 
the  property  homunculus  lives,  moves 
and  has  his  being.  He  knows  no  other  at- 
mosphere and  denies  that  any  other  ever 
existed  or  ever  can  exist.  The  property 
homunculus  is  the  true  product  of  the  grov- 
eling Philistine.  Wagner  with  his  homun- 
culus solves  the  mystery  of  individual  life, 
but  does  not  attempt  the  mystery  of  social 
organization.] 

The  homunculus  proposes  a  visit  to  the 
fields  of  Pharsalus  to  witness  a  classical 
Walpurgis  night.  So  leaving  Wagner  to 
plod  along  at  science  and  discover  perhaps 


OUTLINE   OF   PART   II  21 

the  dot  over  the  letter  "i,"  Homunculus  and 
Mephistopheles  take  Faust  up  in  the  air  and 
head  for  Thessaly. 

In  Part  I  Goethe  had  introduced  a  Witch- 
es' Dance  in  the  Harz  Mountains  on  Wal- 
purgis  Night.  As  a  counterpart  to  this  we 
have  in  Part  II  a  classical  Walpurgis  Night 
on  "Sit.  Olympus  in  Thessaly,  which  occu- 
pies the  greater  part  of  the  second  Act. 
Here,  in  sight  of  the  world-historic  battle- 
fields of  Pydna  and  Pharsalia  the  poet  takes 
an  opportunity  to  go  over  almost  the  entire 
field  of  Grecian  mythology,  particularly  that 
part  relating  to  the  ocean  and  the  watery 
element.  For  the  average  reader  it  is  a 
piece  of  hard  sledding  to  go  through  this. 

Faust  has  been  in  a  trance  ever  since  the 
explosion  at  the  close  of  the  play  of  Helena 
and  Paris  when  he  tried  to  grasp  Helena 
with  his  hands.  As  his  feet  are  placed  upon 
the  ground  after  his  winged  voyage  to 
Thessaly,  he  recovers  consciousness  and  his 
first  words  are,  "Where  is  SHE?"  He  is 
told  that  perhaps  Cheiron  may  help  him 
find  her.  As  Cheiron  comes  rushing  by  on 
his   white   horse,    Faust  is  taken  up  behind 


22  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

the  rider  and  learns  to  his  delight  that  He- 
lena herself  was  once  carried  in  that  same 
seat  —  Helena,    the    ideal    of    Beauty    and 
Grace.    Faust  is  beside  himself  to  find  her 
and  is  left  by  Cheiron  with  Manto  to  de- 
scend into  the  lower  regions  to  Persephone 
and  search  there.    He  does  not  appear  on 
the  stage  again  until  the  middle  of  the  third 
act  when  as  lord  of  a  feudal   castle  near 
Sparta,  he  receives  Helena  as  his  queen. 
,.    Mephistopheles  makes  love  to  the  Phor- 
;  cyads  and  is  transformed  into  one  himself. 
I  He  then  makes  his  exit  to  appear  again  in 
I    Act  HI  as  the  embodiment  of  ugliness  in 
\  contrast  to  the  beauty  of  Helena. 

The  remainder  of  this  act  is  taken  up  with 
scenes  in  which  Anaxagoras  and  Thales, 
representing  respectively  the  Plutonic  and 
Neptunian  theories  of  geology,  discuss 
their  theories  with  Homunculus.  This  part 
>  is  said  to  be  illustrative  of  the  gradual 
growth  of  intelligence  and  of  the  idea  of 
Beauty  in  Art  and  Religion,  beginning  with 
the  animal  worship  and  crude  notions  of 
Phoenicia  and  Egypt,  and  culminating  in 
the  grandeur  and  perfection  of  Greek  art,  in 


OUTLINE   OF  PART  II  23 

which  the  Gods  were  represented  in  human 
form,  and  to  which  Goethe  ascribed  a 
purifying  and  saving  power,  scarcely  less 
important  than  that  of  the  beauty  of  nature. 

Thales  takes  Homunculus  to  Nereus,  the 
sea-god.  Homunculus  wants  to  enter  upon 
free  life,  —  wants  real  Existence.  Nereus 
turns  him  over  to  Proteus,  who  assumes  the 
shape  of  a  dolphin  and  takes  Homunculus 
on  his  back  out  to  sea.  Charmed  by  the 
beauty  of  Galatea,  he  seeks  to  play  around 
her  feet,  but  comes  to  grief;  the  glass  bottle 
is  broken,  the  living  flames  spilled  out 
scattering  fire  over  the  waves,  and  Homun- 
culus is  no  more.  The  classical  Walpurgis 
night  in  Thessaly  prepares  the  way  for  the 
third  act,  which  takes  us  back  to  the  dreamy 
days  of  the  Greek  heroic  age. 

Act  HI.  Faust  "gets"  Helena.  She  has 
just  been  brought  back  from  Troy  by  Me- 
nelaus  and  is  directed  to  go  up  from  the 
coast  to  Sparta  and  make  everything  read)'' 
for  offering  suitable  sacrifices  to  the  gods 
as  soon  as  Menelaus  with  his  companions 
can  follow.  She  obeys,  makes  all  ready,  but 
is  in  doubt  what  is   to  be  the  victim  for 


24  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

sacrifice,  half  suspecting  from  Menelaus' 
sullen  demeanor  that  she  herself  is  doomed 
to  the  altar.  Mephistopheles  in  the  guise  of 
a  Phorcyad  warns  her  that  this  will  surely 
be  her  fate.  There  is,  however,  one  means 
of  escape.  During  the  long  absence  of  Me- 
nelaus in  the  Trojan  War  and  since  then, 
his  kingly  domain  has  been  neglected,  a 
strange,  bold  folk  has  come  in  from  the  far 
Cimmerian  North  and  established  itself  in 
the  mountains  above  Sparta.  It  has  built 
there  a  magnificent  castle  of  Gothic  archi- 
tecture, dififerent  from  the  Cyclopian  struc- 
tures of  the  Homeric  age.  Faust  is  their 
leader;  there  is  refuge.  Helena  follows  the 
advice  of  Mephistopheles  to  save  herself 
and  her  attendants  by  fleeing  to  this  castle, 
where  she  is  received  as  Faust's  queen. 
Menelaus  and  his  forces  are  beaten  back 
and  the  whole  Peloponnesus  falls  under  the 
sway  of  Faust  who  parcels  out  the  prov- 
inces among  his  victorious  dukes  in  feudal 
fashion. 

Faust  now  experiences  all  the  pleasures 
which  the  possession  of  the  Beautiful  can 
bring.   The  dream  of  an  Arcadian  Kingdom 


OUTLINE   OF  PART  II  25 

and  age  is  realized.  He  has  a  stately  castle 
and  a  complete  regal  establishment,  such  as 
many  have  wished  for  and  but  few  obtained. 
He  feels  a  father's  pride  in  his  son  and  pros- 
pective heir,  Euphorion,  the  brilliant  pro- 
duct of  the  union  of  the  Teutonic  with  the 
Greek,  the  Romantic  with  the  Classical. 
But  his  pleasure  is  not  unalloyed.  The  By- 
ronic  Euphorion  turns  out  to  be  a  head- 
strong youth,  heedless  of  his  father's  wise 
admonitions.  His  career  is  cut  short  by  an 
early  death,  due  to  his  own  impetuosity. 
Faust  is  once  more  forced  to  exclaim  that 
grief  follows  close  upon  the  heels  of  pleas- 
ure. His  queen,  Helena,  also  now  leaves 
him  to  return  to  the  other  world.  She  finds 
that  Beauty  and  Bliss  do  not  long  remain 
companions.  Ideal  perfection  even  if  it  were 
attainable  would  not  be  permanent  and 
hence  would  not  be  perfect. 

Faust's  wealth  and  control  of  the  social 
organism  put  him  beyond  the  reach  of 
moral  reproach,  but  cannot  save  him  from 
the  mistake  of  deifying  and  worshiping  a 
part  instead  of  the  whole.  The  loss  of  his 
wife  and  child,  in  whom  alone  he  saw  the 


26  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

embodiment  of  Beauty,  undoes  him.  He 
cannot  see  that  he  still  has  the  entire  and 
imperishable  Universe  to  worship  and  that 
if  he  had  made  his  idea  of  Beauty  coincide 
with  the  Universe  (Kosmos)  instead  of 
only  a  fraction  of  it,  he  would  never  have  been 
in  danger  of  losing  his  ideal. 

Goethe  has  put  into  Faust  most  of  his 
life  experiences,  but  has  omitted  one  im- 
portant chapter,  his  ideal  love  and  comrade- 
ship with  Charlotte  von  Stein.  In  the  story 
of  Gretchen  he  has  shown  us  what  a  pas- 
sionate love  is;  but  this  is  different  from 
that  intellectual  and  spiritual  companion- 
ship which  may  exist  between  a  man  and 
woman  of  similar  tastes  and  equal  mental 
endowment  and  education,  whose  mutual 
understanding  creates  a  confidence  between 
them  as  great  as  that  arising  out  of  pas- 
sionate love.  Helena  is  not  such  a  com- 
panion but  is  rather  the  Grecian  ideal  of 
physical  beauty.  In  Wilhelm  Meister,  and 
especially  in  the  drama,  Torquato  Tasso, 
Goethe  has  given  examples  of  this  relation, 
such  as  he  himself  had  with  Charlotte  von 
Stein. 


OUTLINE   OF  PART   II  27 

In  the  two  remaining  acts  we  return  from 
Greece  to  the  Christian-Germanic  scenes  of 
the  middle  ages,  which  form  the  back- 
ground of  the  whole  work.  In  these  Faust 
endeavors  to  find  a  method  of  attaining 
happiness  in  an  active  life  in  this  work-a-day 
world.    He  is  done  with  women. 

Act  IV.  Mephistopheles  now  lures  Faust 
with  a  graphic  picture  of  the  seething  life 
of  a  great  metropolis,  say  of  Parisian  pro- 
portions, with  Faust  as  the  biggest  toad  in 
the  puddle,  admired  and  envied  by  hundreds 
of  thousands.  It  is  tempting,  but  Faust  has 
one  serious  objection  to  it:  he  likes  to  see 
the  people  increase  and  prosper,  but  they 
invariably  turn  rebels!  That  is  the  hair  in 
the  soup.  The  problem  is  how  to  force 
people  to  be  grateful  to  you  and  remain 
servants  after  they  have  passed  the  age  of 
servantry.  Promethean  Faust  railing  at  re- 
bels (himself  an  arch  rebel  against  all  cus- 
tom and  restraint)  is  as  funny  as  Satan  re- 
buking sin, 

Mephistopheles  continues  his  picture  of  a 
metropolis,  adding  a  grandiose  suburban 
palace  of  pleasure  in  a  park,  with  groves, 


28  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

hills,  lawns,  gardens,  water-falls,  fountains, 
and  cosy  grottoes  with  women  (in  the 
plural,  mind  you),  which  causes  Faust  to 
exclaim,  "Modern  and  bad!"  He  has  had 
enough  of  sensual  pleasure  and  Mephisto- 
pheles'  influence  over  him  begins  to  wane. 
"You,"  says  Faust,  "with  your  sharp,  bit- 
ter, repulsive  nature,  what  do  you  know 
about  the  needs  of  a  human  being?" 

Faust  feels  an  impulse  to  accomplish 
some  great  physical  work.  He  wants  to 
acquire  dominion  of  property.  He  would 
subdue  nature  and  make  it  serviceable  to 
man ;  would  reclaim  a  tract  of  land  from  the 
sea  and  convert  it  into  a  fertile  province 
To  do  this  he  must  first  obtain  the  sover- 
eignty of  the  sea  coast  from  the  Emperor. 
Mephistopheles  suggests  that  the  Emperor 
is  now  in  hard  straits.  The  paper  money 
which  Faust  once  created  for  him  only 
served  to  lead  him  into  extravagance  and 
still  greater  ruin.  In  Church  and  State  a 
strife  is  raging,  similar  to  the  French  Revo- 
lution of  later  times.  An  Anti-Emperor  of 
Napoleonic  ability  has  arisen.  The  subse- 
quent conversation  about  the  decline  of  the 


OUTLINE   OF  PAUT   II  29 

Emperor's  authority  gives  Goethe  the  op- 
portunity to  put  into  Faust's  mouth  some 
wise  platitudes  to  the  effect  that  rulers 
should  shun  pleasures  and  find  their  happi- 
ness in  ruling  only.  Though  the  devil's 
ideal  of  pleasure  no  longer  has  any  attrac- 
tion for  Faust  he  fails  to  see  that  his  scheme 
of  mastery  and  property  is  no  less  a  devil's 
ideal  than  pleasure. 

Faust  and  Mephistopheles  proceed  now 
and  by  using  various  arts  and  magic  and 
by  calling  in  some  bullies,  (primitive  men 
of  the  mountains)  offer  the  Emperor  what 
help  they  can.  The  commanding  general 
reports  the  situation  desperate  and  resigns. 
The  Emperor  gives  Mephistopheles  practic- 
ally the  command  of  the  army  and  urges 
him  to  do  what  he  can,  but  has  scruples 
against  entrusting  him  with  the  Marshal's 
baton ;  he  fears  he  is  not  the  right  man  for 
it.  Mephistopheles  remarks  that  the  baton 
would  be  of  no  use  to  him  anyway :  "There 
was  a  sort  of  cross  thereon !"  The  devil  was 
right.  The  cross  is  out  of  place  on  the  in- 
signia of  civil  war  (class  war).  War  is 
strictly  a  devil's  business. 


80  GOETKE'S  FAUST 

Affairs  now  soon  take  a  more  favorable 
turn;  a  final  victory  is  won  and  Faust  is 
rewarded  with  the  dominion  of  the  seashore 
in  feudal  right. 

Act  V.  With  a  large  force  of  workmen 
Faust  now  proceeds  to  dike  and  drain  the 
sea  marsh,  improve  it  and  make  it  suitable 
for  a  teeming  population.  (It  would  be 
cruel  to  ask  where  he  got  the  money  to 
do  this  work  or  whether  he  used  paper 
money.)  He  also  builds  a  spacious  harbor 
to  accommodate  foreign  commerce. 

Mephistopheles  and  his  bullies  set  out  on 

an  expedition  with  two  ships  and  returned 

to  the  harbor  with  twenty,  loaded  with  the 

spoils  of  foreign  countries.    Might  is  right. 

"Commerce,  war  and  piracy, 

One  in  spirit  are  all  three." 

Everything  is  flourishing,  —  in  fact,  per- 
fectly lovely,  but  there  is  again  a  hair  in  the 
soup.  The  cottage  of  Baucis  and  Philemon, 
an  old  couple  noted  for  their  simple  hos- 
pitality, is  an  eyesore  on  Faust's  domains. 
They  had  been  living  there  before  Faust 
was  given  the  seacoast  by  the  Emperor. 
He  needs  that  location  for  a  terrace  and  i 


OUTLINE   OP  PART   II  31 

orders  them  removed  to  a  better  place.  Me- 
phistopheles  with  his  bullies  undertakes  the 
job.  They  kick  the  door  in  ;  the  old  people 
faint  from  fright;  a  guest  who  is  stopping 
there  shows  resistance,  but  is  overpowered ; 
in  the  scuffle  some  coals  get  scattered  and 
the  house  catches  fire ;  incidentally  the  in- 
mates perish  with  it.  The  history  of  Na- 
both's  vineyard  and  King  Ahab  repeats  it- 
self. Faust  regrets  it  too  late ;  but  how  can 
he  help  it  if  people  will  rebel  against  Fate, 
particularly  where  the  Fate  is  manipulated 
by  the  rulers  of  society? 

Four  grey  women  now  come  at  midnight 
to  Faust's  castle,  —  Want,  Guilt,  Misery 
and  Care.  The  door  is  bolted  and  they  can- 
not get  in.  The  first  three  turn  away  but 
Care  enters  at  the  key-hole.  Faust  refuses 
to  be  affected  by  her  power  to  annoy  and 
states  what  we  might  call  his  confession  of 
faith  (given  hereafter).  Thereupon  she 
breathes  her  curse  upon  him  and  he  be- 
comes blind.  But  though  old  and  blind  he 
is  still  determined  to  direct  the  work  of 
reclaiming  his  land  from  the  sea.  One  spirit 
can  guide  a  thousand  hands.    He  gives  or- 


32  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

ders  to  rouse  up  his  workmen  from  their 
sleep  and  stands  in  the  doorway  to  hurry 
on  the  work  by  torchlight,  in  every  way,  — 
by  prizes,  pay  or  force.  Unconsciously  he  is 
providing  his  own  grave,  for  Mephistophe- 
les,  as  overseer,  and  his  husky  little  devils, 
instead  of  constructing  a  canal,  as  Faust 
supposes  they  are  doing,  though  they  pre- 
tend to  obey  his  orders,  are  actually  dig- 
ging his  grave  right  under  his  nose. 

Faust  imagines  the  work  is  almost  done. 
Only  one  small  swamp  remains.  Were  that 
drained  his  triumph  would  be  complete.  He 
foresees  in  his  mind's  eye  the  reclaimed 
marsh  filled  with  children,  adults  and  aged, 
living  by  their  honest  toil,  a  free  and  happy 
>  people  owing  their  fortunate  condition  to 
his  benevolence.  In  this  presentiment  he 
feels  the  highest  pleasure  and  can  say  to 
the  passing  moment,  "Stay,  thou  art  so 
fair."  His  role  is  ended.  He  sinks  to  the 
ground  ready  to  die.  Mephistopheles  now 
i  steps  up  and  claims  his  soul  in  accordance 
with  the  contract;  hell's  jaws  open  to  re- 
ceive it ;  but  swift  angels  check  him  and 
scatter  roses  about  the  grave,  which  drive 


OUTLINE   OF   PART   II  33 

back  his  base  crew  and  scorch  them  with 
torments  sharper  than  the  flames  of  hell. 

"See!  the  purple  roses  borrowed 

From  the  hands  of  pious  women 

Who  had  loved  and  sinned  and  sorrowed ; 

Loved  above  all  human  measure, 

Sinned  and  sorrowed  and  repented. 

Theirs  it  was  for  heaven  the  treasure 

To  win  home  of  that  hi^gh  spirit." 

The  lesser  devils  can't  stand  it  and  tum- 
ble back  again  into  hell;  but  Mephistophe- 
les  sticks  it  out  and  for  a  time  tries  to  jolTy 
the  angels,  but  soon  realizes  that  in  an  at- 
mosphere of  purity  his  arts  have  no  effect. 
His  role  too  is  here  ended,  and  he  bursts 
out  in  a  storm  of  self  reproaches. 

The  angels  carry  off  Faust's  soul  with  the 
triumphant  words  :_^ 

"Rescued  from  the  evil  one. 
This  noble  spirit  see! 
(     Him  who  unwearied  still  strives  on 
We  have  the  power  to  free." 

The  closing  scene  is  in  heaven  and  brings, 
to  the  front  again  the  long-forgotten  Gret- 
chen.    It  is  decidedly  a  woman's  scene  and 


34  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

highly  characteristic  of  Goethe,  the  poet 
and  lover.  Gretchen's  soul  is  saved  by  the 
prayers  and  work  of  Magdalens,  and  she  in 
turn  adds  her  prayers  to  theirs  in  order  to 
save  Faust.  As  Goethe  could  not  put  He- 
lena in  this  class,  no  mention  is  made  of 
her,  though  she  occupied  a  larger  space  in 
Faust's  life  than  Gretchen.  But  to  top  off 
the  pseudo-tragedy  of  Part  I,  it  is  Gretchen 
who  now  welcomes  Faust's  soul  to  heaven 
and  claims  the  privilege  of  teaching  and 
guiding  him  in  his  new  life.  No  reference 
is  made  to  .Christ;  the  Virgin  Mary  is  the 
one  called  upon. 

"Aid  in  man's  heart  what  thou  of  good. 

Of  tender  thought  and  earnest, 

Of  holy  love,  in  his  best  mood, 

Up-breathed  to  thee,  discernest. 

Dost  thou  command  it?   Ours  is  zeal 

And  courage  all-defying. 

Dost  thou  breathe  peace?  At  once  we  feel 

The  warlike  impulse  dying." 
The  close  is  a  chant  by  a  Myatic  Chorus: 

"Everything  perishing 

Is  but  a  symbol ; 

All  insufficiency 


OUTLINE   OF  PART  II 


Here  is  fulfilled. 
The  indescribable 
Turns  here  reality; 
Eternal  Womanhood 
Draws  us  still  on." 


i-^ 


CHAPTER  III. 

COMMENTS. 

The    foregoing    outline,    though    far    too 
brief,  is  as  much  of  the  contents  of  Faust 
as  can  be  given  in  such  small  space.    Hav- 
ing come  to  the  end  of  the  story,  let  us 
g-lance  back    and    see  what    it  all  means. 
What  is  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  mat- 
ter?   Is  it  not  plain  that  Faust  found  his 
happiness  in  the  commonest  kind  of  bene- 
volentia  vulgaris?    His  ideal  of  human  per- 
fection and  happiness  is  to  be  the  feudal 
lord  of  a  colony  on  a  reclaimed  marsh,  a 
sort  of  artificial  or  toy  village,     segregated 
from  the  main  body  of  human  society  and 
connected  with  it  only  by  piracy  or  perhaps 
commerce.    The    Pullman    Car  Shops,  the 
Gary  Steel  Works    and    the    Krupp    Gun 
Works  are  examples  of  such  toy  villages. 
We  are  tempted  to  exclaim  in  Faust's  own 
language   (slightly  modified):  — 

"The  poodle's  kernel  then  is  this, 

A  Doctor  of  Philanthrophy! 

The  idea  makes  me  laugh." 

36 


\ 


COMMENTS  87 

To  make  a  single  individual,  Faust,  happy, 
there  must  exist  a  vast  and  permanently- 
dependent  population  who  w^orship  him  as  a 
benefactor.  This  plan  of  becoming  a  pro- 
fessional philanthropist  with  other  people's 
money  is  enough  to  raise  the  laughter  of 
the  gods.  We  shall  come  back  to  this 
subject  later. 


In  reading  Faust  we  should  have  in  mind 
the  only  other  works  which  are  at  all  com- 
parable with  it,  viz :  Dante's  Comedy  and 
Milton's  Paradise  Lost.  If  the  majestic  ser- 
iousness of  Dante  has  won  for  his  work  the 
appellation  of  divine,  we  may  justly  de- 
scribe ]\Iilton's  stern  characters  as  grandly 
heroic,  while  Goethe's  are  almost  human 
and  for  that  reason  more  modern  and  inter- 
esting. Dante  and  Milton  are  both  under 
the  spell  of  dogmatic  religion.  Goethe  is 
more  philosophic.  He  has  freed  himself 
from  dogmatism  and  is  feeling  about  for  a 
new  foundation,  suspecting  that  somehow 
it  is  to  be  found  in  humanity,  but  is  not 'yet 
clear  whether  in  all  humanity  or  only  the 


38  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

"good"  part  of  it,  or  in  Eternal  Woman- 
hood. We  feel  that  Faust  and  Mephisto- 
pheles  and  even  the  Lord  himself  are  all 
very  near  to  us.  But  it  is  human  in  the 
individualist  sense  alone,  and  herein  are 
found  its  shortcomings  and  onesidedness. 
Whatever  the  life  in  heaven  may  be, 
whether  the  individual  there  is  a  perfect 
unit,  isolated  and  independent  of  social  in- 
fluences or  not,  one  thing  is  certain,  that  in 
this  present  vale  of  tears  life  has  two 
phases,  the  individual  and  the  social ;  and 
the  attempt  to  treat  of  one  and  ignore  the 
other_  while  it  may  be  made  interesting  as 
an  illustration  of  toy  literature,  is  essenti- 
ally and  fundamentally  a  failure  from  the 
very  start.  Under  class  civilization  all 
literature  as  well  as  all  science  may 
be  called  toy  work;  it  does  not  make 
for  human  progress  directly  but  only  in- 
cidentally. The  sciences  and  inventions 
are  exploited  by  corporations  primarily 
for  profit,  and  all  new  discoveries  merely 
broaden  the  field  of  exploitation  and  give 
rise  to  larger  corporations.  The  toy  litera- 
ture and  arts  merely  serve  for  the  diver- 


COMMENTS  39 

sion  of  the  same  class;  they  affect  the  up- 
per surface  of  society  only  and  do  not  rise 
to  the  dignity  of  really  human  productions, 
because  they  are  not  participated  in  by 
humanity,  nor  is  it  intended  that  they 
should  be. 

r— '  It  is  precisely  the  conviction  of  this  truth 
pressing  on  Faust's  soul  that  makes  him 
feel  disgusted    with    all    his    sciences  and 

I  learning,  and  realize  that  he  is  out  of  touch 
withhumanity,  as  many  another  learned 
man  has  also  felt.  If  he  had  devoted  only 
a  portion  of  that  reflective  energy,  which 
he  lavished  so  freely  in  other  directions,  to- 
wards investigating  the  meaning  of  indi- 
vidual and  social,  good  and  evil,  he  would 
not  have  needed  to  call  in  the  devil  as  an 
instructor  in  these  matters. 


Faust  is  restless,  inquisitive,  sticks  his 
nose  into  everything  but  is  never  satisfied. 
He  is  as  much  of  a  devil  as  Mephistopheles, 
but  of  a  different  sort.  He  has  more  of  the 
characteristics  of  Milton's  Satan  than  Me- 
phistopheles  has;    is    an    open  rebel,  bold,^ 


X 


40  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

straightforward  and  defiant.  When  Mephis- 
topheles  twits  him  for  pausing  in  his  at- 
tempted suicide,  at  the  sound  of  the  Easter 
bells,  Faust  admits  that  he  was  temporarily 
under  the  spell  of  old  recollections,  yet 
knew  all  the  while  that  it  was  a  delusion. 
He  then  bursts  out  as  follows :  — 

"We  are  but  what  the  senses  make  of  us, 

And  this  and  all  illusion  do  I  curse, 

All  that  beguiles  us,  man  or  boy  —  that 

winds 
Over  the  heart  its  nets  and  chains  us  here 
In  thraldom  down  or  voluntary  trance. 
This  magic  jugglery,  that  fools  the  soul  — 
These  obscure  powers  that  cloud  and  flat- 
ter it! 
Oh,  cursed  first  of  all  be  the  high  thoughts 
That  man  conceives  of  his  own  attributes ! 
And  cursed  be  the  shadowy  appearances 
The  false  delusive  images  of  things. 
That  slave  and  mock  the  senses !   cursed  be 
The  hypocrite  dreams  that  sooth  us  when 

we  think 
Of  men — of  deathless  and  enduring  names ! 
Cursed  be  all  that,  in  self-flattery, 


\ 


COMMENTS  41 

We  call  our  own,  —  wife,  child,  and  slave, 

and  plough ;  — 
Curse    upon  Mammon,    when    with  luring 

gold 
He  stirs  our  souls  to  hardy  deeds,  or  when 
He  smoothes  the  couch  of  indolent  repose^ 
A  curse  upon  the  sweet  grape's  balmy  juice, 
And  the  passionate  joys  of  love,  man's  high- 
est joys  — 
And  cursed  be  all  hope  and  all  belief; 
And  cursed    more  than  all,  man's  tame  en- 
durance." 

In  the  same  spirit  is  what  we  might  call 
Faust's  Confession  of  Faith,  made  to  Care 
in  the  last  Act,  as  follows :  ■ — 

"I  only  through  the  world  have  flown : 
Each  appetite  I  seized  as  by  the  hair: 
What  not  sufficed  me,  forth  I  let  it  fare, 
And  what  escaped  me,  I  let  go. 
I've  only  craved,  accomplished  my  delight, 
Then  wished  a  second  time,  and  thus  with 

might 
Stormed  through    my    life:    at  first  'twas 

grand,  completely, 
But  now   it   moves   most  wisely   and   dis- 
creetly. 


43  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

The  sphere  of  Earth  is  known  enough  to 

me; 
The  view  beyond  is  barred  immutably: 
A  fool,  who  there  his  blinking  eyes  direct- 

eth 
And  o'er  his  clouds  of  peers  a  place  ex- 

pecteth ! 
Firm  let  him  stand,  and  look  around  him 

well. 
This  World  means  something  to  the  Cap- 
able. 
Why  needs  he  through  Eternity  to  wend? 
He  here  acquires  what  he  can  apprehend. 
Thus  let  him  wander  down  his  earthly  day; 
When  spirits  haunt,  go  quietly  his  way; 
In  marching    onwards,    bliss  and  torment 

find, 
Though,     every     moment,     with     unsated 

mind!" 

This  has  the  genuine  Satanic  ring.  There 
is  nothing  Mephistophelean  about  it;  it  is 
too  deep  and  heartfelt  for  that.  Not  even 
his  chagrin  at  losing  Faust's  soul  could 
wring  from  Mephistopheles  such  sincere 
expressions  as  these.  It  breathes  the  true 
spirit  of  Aeschylus's   Prometheus,  defying 


COMMENTS  43 

the  gods  of  Olympus  and  aiding  the  human 
race  in  the  upward  struggle  towards  free- 
dom. "Prometheus,  unable  to  bring  man- 
kind back  to  primitive  innocence,  used 
knowledge  as  a  weapon  to  defeat  evil  by 
leading  mankind  beyond  the  state  wherein 
they  are  sinless  through  ignorance,  to  that 
in  which  they  are  virtuous  through  wis- 
dom." 

Faust  struggles  forward  without  remorse 
and  without  regard  for  the  effect  on  others. 
Both  his  individual  and  social  progress  is 
made  at  the  expense  of  others.  What  we 
object  to  is  the  assumption  that  this  must 
necessarily  and  always  be  so,  —  that  if  the 
power  to  injure  others  were  cut  off  there 
would  be  nothing  left  worth  striving  for,  no  : 
room  for  the  play  of  enthusiasm  or  ambi-  j 
tion  of  any  kind.  We  have  no  objection  to 
another's  amusing  himself  or  advancing 
himself  provided  he  travels  on  his  own  ex-  / 
pense.  But  when  he  takes  his  pleasure  at 
the  cost  of  another's  ruin ;  when  he  becomes 
generous  with  other  people's  money;  when 
he  attains  his  final  happiness  at  the  cost  of 
other   people's   happiness   and    the    ignore-  \ 


V 


44  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

ment  of  their  condition,  we  call  a  halt. 
Faust's  genteel  ignorance,  which  makes  him 
conveniently  oblivious  of  the  effects  left  in 
the  trail  of  his  progress  and  blind  to  the. 
certain  results  of  further  advance,  is  as 
devilish  as  Mephistopheles'  insincerity.  His 
head  is  once  for  all  ruthlessly  set  on  being 
a  philanthropist  regardless  of  consequences. 
Faust  also  has  the  same  self-indulgence  as 
Mephistopheles,  but  in  spite  of  this  and 
combined  with  it  he  still  retains  his  im- 
pulse toward  striving  forward. 

Wherein  then  does  Faust's  badness  differ 
from  that  of  Mephistopheles?  In  the  fact 
that  it  is  positive  instead  of  negative;  it  is 
temporary  only  and  lays  a  foundation  for 
subsequent  goodness,  being  merely  a  step 
in  the  course  of  human  progress ;  whereas 
Mephistopheles'  badness  being  a  negation, 
stagnation  and  doing  of  nothing,  cannot 
serve  as  a  foundation  for  anything.  It  con- 
tains no  element  of  self-effort,  but  only  self- 
indulgence.  Hence  with  Mephistopheles  the 
having  been  and  ceased  is  the  same  as  never 
having  been.  For  Faust  there  is  a  valid 
and  important  difference  between  these  two. 


COMMENTS  45 

During  the  Class  Era  of  human  society, 
with  its  peculiar  ethics  and  its  separation 
of  rights  and  duties,  good  may  be  tempor- 
ary evil  and  evil  ultimate  good. 

Faust's  peculiar  merit  is  supposed  to  con-  | 
sist  in  his  "unwearied  striving,"  his  impulse 
to  go  forward,  to  achieve,  to  accomplish 
something,  and  this  impulse  is  not  killed 
out  but  still  survives  after  he  has  become 
sated  with  sensual  pleasures.  This  unwear- 
ied striving  seems  all  right  at  first  glairce. 
But  let  us   ask,  —  Striving    after    what? 

I  Why,  to  get  up  on  the  backs  of  other  peo- 
ple, of  course!     That  is  the  only  kind  of 

i  striving  that  counts  in  the  Class  State  or 
in  the  ideals  growing  out  of  it.  "Mastery 
and  property  are  what  I  am  going  to  win," 
says  Faust,  in  rejecting  Mephistopheles' 
ofifer  of  still  more  and  greater  sensuality. 

1     But  there  is  more  than  one  kind  of  striv- 

'  ing.  If  instead  of  this,  Faust  had  turned  his 
efforts  in  another  direction  and  striven  un- 
weariedly  to  study  and  take  part  in  the 
world  with  a  view  to  reconciling  the  con- 
flict between  individual  and  social  life,  in- 
stead of  becoming  disgusted  with  Law,  Me- 


46  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

dicine,   Philosophy   and   Theology,   studied 

simply  as  disconnected  sciences,  he  would 

have  realized  the  usefulnes  of  these  things, 

when   properly   correlated   with    social    life 

and  made  subservient  to  it,  and  would  have 

arrived  at  a  different  conception  of  progress 

land  perfection. 

*     *     * 

Faust  learns  to  his  surprise  that  laws  and 
justice  are  not  peculiar  to  heaven  and  earth 
but  are  also  found  in  the  infernal  regions. 
This  had  never  occurred  to  him  before, 
though  he  was  a  Doctor  of  Laws  himself: 

Faust. 
"Hell  has  its  codes  of  laws  then,  —  well 
I  will  think  better  now  of  hell, 
If  laws  be  binding  and  obeyed. 
Then  Contracts  with  you  may  be  made." 

Meph. 
"Made  and  fulfilled  too,  nowhere  better,^ — 
We  keep  our  contracts  to  the  letter." 

The  Infernal  Code  has  a  striking  similar- 
ity to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States ; 
it  prohibits  laws  which  impair  the  obliga- 
tion   of    Contracts.     Faust's  contract  with 


COMMENTS  47 

Mephistopheles' is  merely  the  converse  of 
jthe  pioiis  -man's  contract  with  God.  Both 
are  typical  of  the  bourgeois  Age  of  Con- 
tract. The  pious  man  contracts  to  sur- 
render his  freedom  and  to  serve  God  faith- 
fully here  if  he  gets  paid  for  it  hereafter. 
Faust  wants  his  pay,  his  satisfaction,  his 
freedom  here,  and  in  consideration  thereof 
promises  to  serve  the  Devil  hereafter.  Oth- 
erwise the  two  forms  of  contract  are  of 
the  same  general  character.  Both  are  con- 
tracts between  a  helpless  human  being  and 
a  supernatural  power  and  bear  all  the  ear 
marks  of  that  fairness  and  equality  which 
are  alleged  to  underlie  the  contract  between 
a  servant  and  his  employer.  In  every  case, 
it  is  said,  the  serving  party  is  perfectly  free 
to  contract  or  not  contract  as  he  sees  fit. 
But  in  the  same  breath  in  which  we  are 
assured  that  we  are  free  to  choose  between 
God  and  the  Devil,  we  are  also  told  that 
there  is  no  other  choice;  it  must  be  one  or 
the  other,  yea  or  nay,  a  strict  metaphysical 
cinch,  excluding  any  third  choice.  Not 
much  play  for  freedom  here.  We  are  sus- 
picious of  this  kind  of  freedom.   It  reminds 


48  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

US  of  the  inalienable  right  of  the  citizen  to 
vote  for  either  the  Republican  or  the  De- 
mocratic party. 

If  we  first  assume  that  there  are  such 
supernatural  powers,  then  their  blood-seal- 
ed contracts  and  covenants  with  men  would 
indeed  form  the  basis  for  a  gruesome  trage- 
dy. The  desperate  struggle  of  Faust's  soul 
for  freedom  and  satisfaction  drives  him  into 
a  compact  with  Mephistopheles  which 
seems  uncanny  and  repulsive  to  many 
worthy  people  and  deters  them  from  the 
study  of  this  work.  But  is  there  anything 
more  uncanny  about  this  than  about  the 
pious  man's  covenant  with  God,  to  renounce 
humanity  here  for  a  promised  satisfaction 
hereafter?   One  is  as  uncanny  as  the  other. 

This  idea  of  present  happiness  or  future 
salvation  by  Contract  runs  clear  back  to 
the  time  when  Adam  was  given  the  garden 
of  Eden  upon  the  condition  (contract)  that 
he  should  not  eat  of  the  tree  of  knowledge 
or  of  life,  and  it  is  precisely  for  the  purpose 
of  avoiding  or  overcoming  this  original  and 
fundamental  condition  that  Faust  enters 
into    a    contract    with    Mephistopheles    by 


COMMENTS  49 

which  he  is  to  taste  knowledge  and  life  for 
a  consideration.  With  open  eyes  and  fully 
aware  of  the  consequences,  he  took  the  step 
that  Eve  was  led  into  by  deception. 

In  the  larger  and  largest  sense  the  story 
of  Faust  from  first  to  last,  in  spite  of  its 
happy  ending,  might  be  called  a  tragedy 
of  human  existence,  the  Gretchen  episode 
being  a  mere  incident  of  the  story  as 
a  whole.  Life  may  be  called  either  a 
tragedy  or  a  comedy  as  best  suits  the  pur- 
pose and  point  of  view  of  each  individual. 

Dante's  glorification  of  Divine  Law,  as 
illustrated  in  his  grandiose  system  of  punish- 
ment, penitence,  and  bliss,  is  only  a  reflex 
or  adaptation  of  the  institutions  of  the  Civ- 
ilized Era  which  were  established  to  con- 
firm and  uphold  the  Rule  of  Property,  and 
particularly  of  the  age-famed  system  of  Ro- 
man jurisprudence  and  imperial  govern- 
ment. This  appears  clearly  enough  from 
the  poem  itself.  It  appears  still  more  clearly 
when  the  Vision  is  read  in  connection  with 
Dante's  prose  work  De  Monarchia.  Prop- 
erty is  the  spirit  of  all  law,  both  heavenly 
and  earthly. 


60  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

"Justice  the  founder  of  my  fabric  moved ; 
All  hope  abandon,  ye  who  enter  here." 

From  this  it  appears  that  Dante's  hell  is 
merely  a  part  of  the  machinery  of  some 
vast  system  of  laws  or  "justice."  Most  of 
the  punishments  in  Dante's  hell,  especially 
the  lower  and  heavier  ones,  are  for  crimes 
against  property,  and  the  heaviest  of  all 
is  for  attempts  to  overthrow  the  ruling  or- 
der of  society.  According  to  Dante  the 
crucifixion  of  Christ  was  an  act  of  justice, 
and  no  blame  attaches  to  those  who  were 
guilty  of  it. 

Dante  sings  the  praises  of  divine  and  im- 
perial justice  in  lOO  cantos ;  he  justifies  the 
murder  of  Christ.  But  we  are  all  human 
and  blind  to  ourselves.  After  acting  as  a 
dispenser  of  justice  for  several  years,  Dante 
by  a  turn  of  the  wheel  became  himself  a 
fugitive  from  justice  and  refused  to  submit 
to  the  decrees  of  his  father-city  (he  was 
condemned  to  the  stake),  which  he  de- 
nounced to  his  dying  day  as  a  heaven-out- 
raging wrong.  Such  is  the  difference  be- 
tween prescribing  justice  for  others  and 
taking  the  medicine  oneself. 


COMMENTS  61 

But  suppose  we  should  find  after  wider 
experience  and  better  understanding  of 
things  that  the  assumed  fate  or  supernat- 
ural power  which  determines  man's  weal 
or  woe  is  in  fact  only  the  organized  Econ- 
omic Power  of  Society;  and  that  Faust's 
lack  of  wealth,  honor  and  worldly  power 
which  forces  him  to  a  dog's  life  is  not  due 
to  divine  predestination  but  to  the  consti- 
tution of  Society  as  moulded  by  historic 
evolution ;  and  suppose  that  by  further  his- 
torical (not  "made-to-order")  development, 
Society  should  become  re-constituted  in  a 
way  that  would  assure  to  Faust  his  full 
share  of  wealth,  honor  and  power  and  re- 
move the  cause  of  his  complaint,  making 
him  feel  like  a  man  instead  of  a  dog.  What 
would  happen  then?  Nothing;  only  the  bot- 
tom would  drop  out  of  the  so-called  human 
tragedy ;  the  supernatural  would  vanish  and 
the  clarified  soul  would  find  its  satisfac- 
tion not  in  despising  this  life  and  looking 
forward  to  a  bourgeois  heaven,  free  from 
the  curse  of  labor,  where  all  are  capitalists 
and  none  laborers,  but  in  the  breadth  and 
variety  of  its  activity  here,  the  joy  of  co- 


6a  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

Operation  with  others  and  the  consciousness 
of  being  able  both  to  learn  of  them  and  in 
turn  to  improve  and  instruct  them,  which 
Faust  found  himself  unable  to  do;  there 
would  be  no  place  then  for  the  fate  tragedy, 
in  the  sense  of  servile  and  despairing  awe ; 
but  there  would  be  a  certain  intelligent 
serenity  and  cheerfulness  based  on  an  un- 
derstanding of  the  Known  and  a  moral  con- 
viction and  certainty  that  the  now  Un- 
known, when  finally  grasped,  will  be  like  to 
the  already  Known. 

In  saying  this  we  have  perhaps  said  but 
little  more  than  is  contained  in  Napoleon's 
terse  remark  to  Goethe  himelf : — "Policy  is 
Fate." 


Let  us  now  take  a  glance  at  Mephisto- 
pheles.  He  appears  at  different  times  in 
somewhat  different  roles,  but  there  is  a  gen- 
eral similarity  running  through  them  all. 
In  the  Prologue  he  appears  as  a  sort  of 
clown  or  jester  at  a  reception  held  by  the 
Lord  in  heaven,  and  in  this  capacity  con- 
trasts strongly  with  the  glory  and  dignity 


COIktMENTS  53 

of  the  Archangels,  Raphael,  Gabriel  and  Mi- 
chael. The  scene  opens  with  the  celebrated 
chorus  of  the  Archangels,  which  cannot  fail 
to  remind  the  reader  of  the  Nineteenth 
Psalm.  No  translation  of  this  chorus  which 
we  have  seen  gives  the  spirit  of  it  so  well 
as  Addison  had  previously  done  in  No.  465 
of  the  Spectator. 

Addison's  verses  are  as  follows : — 

"The   spacious  firmament  on  high, 

With  all  the  blue  ethereal  sky 

And  spangled  heavens,  a  shining  frame, 

Their  great  Original  proclaim : 

The  unwearied  sun  from  day  to  day. 

Does  his  Creator's  power  display. 

And  publishes  to  every  land, 

The  work  of  an  Almighty  hand. 

Soon  as  the  evening  shades  prevail. 

The  moon  takes  up  the  wondrous  tale. 

And  nightly  to  the  list'ning  earth 

Repeats  the  story  of  her  birth: 

Whilst  all  the  stars  that  round  her  burn. 

And  all  the  planets  in  their  turn. 

Confirm  the  tidings  as  they  roll, 

And  spread  the  truth  from  pole  to  pole. 


54  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

What  though,  in  solemn  silence,  all 
Move  round  the  dark  terrestrial  ball? 
What  though  no  real  voice  nor  sound 
Amid  their  radiant  orbs  be  found? 
In  reason's  ear  they  all  rejoice, 
And  utter  forth  a  glorious  voice, 
Forever  singing  as  they  shine, 
"The  hand  that  made  us  is  divine." 

Goethe  has  added  one  important  thought, 
—  the  inconceivably  swift  whirling  of  the 
earth  with  its  succession  of  paradisal  splen- 
dor by  day  and  gloomy  darkness  at  night, 
and  especially  the  perpetual  conflict  of  the 
elements,  which  is  typical  of  the  lifelong 
struggle  of  the  soul  to  overcome  its  mater- 
ial environment  until  it  finds  peace  at  last 
in  discovering  and  becoming  reconciled  to 
the  wisdom  of  natural  and  divine  (i.  e.  so- 
cial) law,  and  leads  a  life  of  serenity  in  spite 
of  all  inner  and  outer  conflicts. 

Goethe's  meaning,  but  not  his  poetry  may 
be  given  as  follows :  — 

"Though  o'er  the  earth  the  tempests  rage, 
The  waves  beat  high  against  the  cliffs. 


COMMENTS  66 

The  lig-htnings  flash  and  thunders  roar, 

And  land  and  sea  and  air  and  fire 

Wage  with  each  other  ceaseless  war; 

Yet  earth  pursues  its  even  course, 

Regardless  of  the  elements. 

And  over  all  reigns  peace  supreme 

Imposed  by  God's  eternal  laws ; 

The  sight  makes  angels'  hearts  rejoice." 

After  hearing  this  chorus  Mephistopheles 
feels  himself  out  of  place,  but  remembers 
that  the  Lord  has  generally  been  glad  to 
see  him  on  these  occasions.  He  cannot  sing 
any  chant  about  suns  and  planets,  but  re- 
ports to  the  Lord  that  mankind  is  still 
groveling  about  on  the  earth  the  same  as 
on  the  day  of  creation.  Though  gifted  with 
reason  they  use  their  reason  so  perversely 
that  they  would  be  better  oflF  without  it. 
Their  condition  is  so  miserable  that  Me- 
phistopheles really  hasn't  the  heart  to  an- 
noy them. 

The  Lord  speaks  kindly  to  him ;  invites 
his  attention  to  Dr.  Faust  as  being  a  likely 
spepimen  of  humanity ;  gives  him  leave  to 
draw  Faust  away  from  the  right  path  if  he 


56  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

can,  and  is  confident  that  in  spite  of  his 
errors  Faust  will  prove  himself  true  to  his 
consciousness  of  what  is  right.  Mephisto- 
pheles  takes  the  bet  and  is  sure  of  winning. 
The  Lord  says  he  has  never  hated  Mephis- 
topheles,  but  has  in  fact  made  him  a  com- 
panion to  man  to  arouse  him  from  sloth- 
fulness.  Mephistopheles  remarks  (aside) 
that  he  likes  to  see  the  "Governor"  from 
time  to  time  and  is  careful  not  to  break 
with  him  completely. 

It  will  be  seen  at  once  that  Mephistophe- 
les is  not  the  typical  Satan.  He  is  a  modern 
and  degenerate  devil,  smart  and  pessimistic. 
He  is  described  by  the  Lord  as  one  who  de- 
nies, —  a  rogue,  caviller,  scoflfer  and  dis- 
sembler. He  describes  himself  as  one  who 
wills  the  wrong  and  works  the  right;  as 
"Old  Iniquity."  A  more  accurate  name 
would  be  "Old  Insincerity."  He  is  frivolous, 
a  hypocrite,  a  scofifer  at  every  serious  thing ; 
without  purpose,  ambition  or  aspiration  of 
any  kind.  He  forbids  the  witch  to  call  him 
Satan.  He  has  laid  aside  horns,  tail  and 
claws;  he  has  become  modernized  and  got 
"culture."    His  title  is  "Herr  Baron."    He 


COMMENTS  CT 

wears  a  long  rapier  at  his  side  and  is  a 
cavalier  like  other  cavaliers.  His  ideal  of 
happiness  is  sensual  pleasure,  something  of 
the  Versailles  type,  as  described  in  the  be- 
ginning of  Act  IV.  After  Faust's  death  he 
tries  to  flirt  with  the  angels  who  come  for 
Faust's  soul,  but  feels  his  own  powerless- 
ness  when  brought  face  to  face  with  pure 
love.  It  is  as  hard  for  him  to  scoff  in  this 
atmosphere  as  it  was  for  Gretchen  to  pray 
when  he  was  around,  and  he  reproaches 
himself  for  losing  Faust's  soul  by  carrying 
his  smartness  too  far  and  not  knowing  when 
to  stop. 

This  picture  of  the  devil  is  rather  too 
modern  to  harmonize  well  with  the  general 
medieval-Catholic  setting  of  the  whole  dra- 
ma. As  a  personification  of  Evil  it  is  a 
failure.  It  is  erroneous  to  hold  up  the  fri- 
volity and  sexual  indulgences  of  fashionable 
society  as  being  the  quintessence  of  wicked- 
ness. To  do  so  is  to  make  the  same  mis- 
take as  to  confound  the  vices  of  the  slum 
proletariat  with  the  real  wickedness  of  the 
revolutionary  working  class.  The  slum  pro- 
letariat of  the  barrel  houses  and  the  slum- 


68  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

mers  of  fashionable  society,  say  at  Newport 
or  Versailles,  are  both  excrescences  on  the 
social  body  and  are  simply  vicious  and  fool- 
ish, that  is  all.  They  are  not  really  danger- 
ous to  any  one  except  themselves. 

To  properly  contrast  good  and  evil  you 
have  to  line  up  the  moral,  benevolent  and 
pious  capitalists  (the  so-called  honest  busi- 
ness men)  on  one  side  and  the  revolution- 
ary union  labor  class  on  the  other  side  — 
men  who  preach  sedition,  slug  scabs,  de- 
stroy property  and  care  nothing  for  capi- 
talist laws,  courts  or  contracts.  This  is  no 
parlor  deviltry ;  it  is  real  wickedness  com- 
parable to  Satan's  sin  against  God,  as  rep- 
resented by  Milton.  It  is  outside  the  realm 
of  jokes.  In  this  contrast,  on  one  side  all 
crimes  dwindle  into  insignificance  compared 
with  the  fundamental  crime  of  class  subjec- 
tion ;  and  on  the  other  side  all  sins  are  pec- 
cadilloes compared  with  the  attempt  to  in- 
,terfere  with  the  Rule  of  Property.  \ 

\      Mephistopheles    is    not    maliciously    bad,  \ 
but  is  insincere  and  indifferent.    As   Gret-  I 
chen  says,  he  has  no  sympathy  or  interest 
in  anything.    His  enmity  to  God  does  not 


COaiMENTS  59 

take  an  active  form.  IMilton's  Satan  is  an 
older  and  far  stronger  type.  He  is  a  fierce 
and  defiant  Archangel,  in  grim  earnest, 
thoroughly  sincere.  His  crime  was  that  he 
failed  in  an  attempt  to  gain  the  rulership 
of  Heaven  and  he  remains  God's  open  and 
implacable  enemy.  He  attempts  to  ruin 
Adam  and  Eve,  for  the  purpose  of  thwart- 
ing God's  plans,  not  because  he  has  any  dis- 
like of  them.  He  is  a  typical  rebel.  Faust 
himself  has  more  of  the  Satanic  defiance 
about  him  than  Mephistopheles  has.  Satan's 
acts  are  not  ordinary  vices,  but  sins  against 
God  himself.  Apart  from  these  he  is  a 
strong  and  manly  character.  In  his  discus- 
sion with  Christ  during  the  temptation  in 
"Paradise  Regained"  Satan  has  decidedly 
the  best  of  the  argument.  Milton  was  some- 
thing of  a  rebel  himself,  on  all  fields  except 
the  religious ;  his  training  in  this  prevented 
him  from  seeing  how  his  political  and  so- 
cial views  would  look  if  applied  to  the  ce- 
lestial realm. 

For  Part  H  of  Faust  what  Goethe  really 
needed  was  a  new  sort  of  devil.  Mephisto- 
pheles plays  the  role  very  well  for  Part  I, 


60  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

representing  the  evil  of  self-indulgence  in 
the  individual  life.  But  for  the  broader  so- 
cial world  of  Part  II  and  especially  in  Acts 
IV  and  V,  he  is  a  failure.  However,  Faust 
alone  with  the  unerring  instinct  of  an  erring 
mortal  hits  the  right  trail  here.  He  sets  out 
for  "dominion  and  property."  This  is  some- 
thing worthy  of  a  truly  Satanic  nature.  Me- 
phistopheles  lends  what  assistance  he  can, 
but  his  heart  is  not  in  this  work.  He  calls 
it  foolishness.  From  Goethe's  own  stand- 
point the  right  sort  of  a  devil  here  would 
be  one  who  would  have  drawn  Faust  over 
to  the  revolutionary  army  and  made  him 
leader  of  the  Sansculottes,  bringing  about  a 
victory  over  the  Emperor  and  the  ruin  of 
Society.  But  that  would  not  be  literature. 
All  literature  of  the  Property  Age  must 
stop  this  side  of  the  brink  of  social  ruin. 
And  the  same  limit  is  set  to  the  much 
vaunted  bourgeois  science.  According  to 
this  all  things  may  be  made  the  object  of 
scientific  study  except  politics.  The  science 
of  politics  spells  the  doom  of  class  rule  and 
hence  is  excluded  from  the  domain  of  "legit- 
imate"   science.     Goethe    himself    was    as 


COMMENTS  61 

great  in  the  toy  sciences  as  in  toy  literature, 
but  it  never  occurred  to  him  to  apply  scien- 
tific methods  to  the  study  of  political  phe- 
nomena. What  does  the  ruling  class  care 
for  a  little  thing  like  science  unless  it  serves 
either  for  profit  or  to  strengthen  its  suprem- 
acy? To  expect  this  class  to  put  itself  out 
of  existence  for  the  sake  of  being  scientific, 
is  as  foolish  as  to  expect  it  to  reform  itself 
away  by  legislation  or  benevolence,  or  to 
observe  the  law  to  its  own  destruction. 

When  we  go  over  all  the  wonderful  dis- 
coveries and  inventions  of  the  past  century 
we  should  expect  to  find  the  mass  of  the 
human  race  correspondingly  elevated,  as 
was  predicted  ovei  and  over  again  every 
time  an  important  invention  was  brought 
out.  Yet  such  has  not  been  the  result; 
and  were  it  not  for  the  smouldering  hope 
that  sometime  somehow  a  change  will  be 
wrought,  the  words  of  Mephistopheles 
would  have  to  be  admitted  as  substantially 
true  and  not  sufficiently  refuted  by  the 
Lord's  pointing  to  Faust  as  an  example  of 
one  good  man:  — 


G2  GO£THi3-S  FAUST 

"I  only  see  how  men  fret  on  their  day; 
The  little  God  of  Earth  is  still  the  same 
Strange  thing  he  was,  when  first  to  life  he 

came; 
That  life  were  somewhat  better,  if  the  light 
Of  heaven  had  not  been  given  to  spoil  him 

quite. 
Reason  he  calls  it — see  its  blessed  fruit. 
Than   the   brute   beast   man   is   a   beastlier 

brute." 
When  we  see  little  children  working  like 
mules,  and  see  men  and  women  in  an  un- 
necessary struggle  for  the  necessaries  of  life 
while  these  great  scientists  piddle  along 
with  their  little  hobbies  like  telephones, 
turbines  and  tupenny  tubes,  which  benefit 
the  mass  nothing,  is  it  not  right  to  say  that 
they  are  only  "fiddling  while  Rome  burns"? 
But  after  all  this  is  only  one  more  proof 
that  the  working  class  will  never  be  free 
unless  it  frees  itself. 


This  personification  of  evil  in  Mephisto- 
pheles  as  an  absolute,  active  force  is  taken 
from  the  old  theology;  but  it  strikes  us  as 


COMMENTS  63 

inconsistent  with  Goethe's  representation  of 
man  as  having  an  ineradicable  inclination 
towards  the  good  which  eventually  saves 
him.  If  this  were  true,  none  would  perish. 
This  would  not  be  consistent  with  the  doc- 
trines of  the  old  theology  on  the  damnation 
and  punishment  of  the  wicked.  It  would 
seem  to  us  more  logical  from  Goethe's  own 
standpoint  to  represent  Good  as  the  active, 
positive  force  and  Evil  as  the  passive,  nega- 
tive side  of  the  same  force;  i.  e.,  instead  of 
good  versus  evil,  say  struggle  versus  sloth, 
self-control  versus  self-indulgence. 

If  on  the  other  hand  Faust  is  to  be  con- 
sidered not  as  a  type  of  all  men,  but  only 
of  a  "capable"  man,  as  he  calls  himself,  or 
of  a  "good"  man,  as  the  Lord  calls  him,  then 
Goethe  has  begged  the  question  right  at 
the  start.  He  has  selected  a  "good"  man  to 
show  us  how  a  good  man  can  be  saved. 
This  does  not  interest  us.  What  we  want 
to  know  is  how  one  can  get  to  be  good  and 
capable  in  the  first  place  before  one  is  pit- 
ted against  the  devil.  This  Goethe  forgot 
to  tell  us. 

"Man  errs  as  long  as  he  strives,"  says  the 


64  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

Lord  in  the  Prologue.  In  other  words,  Faust 
in    contrast    to    Mephistopheles    wills    the 
good,  but  in  groping  blindly  for  it  works 
the  bad,  and  is  saved  for  the  sake  of  his 
good  intentions    in  spite    of  his  misdeeds. 
Instead  of  picturing  man  as  fallen  and  re- 
quiring a  Redeemer,  Goethe  represents  him 
as  possessing  innate  germs  of  goodness  so 
indestructible  that  even   the   devil  himself 
cannot  ruin  him.    But  this  applies  only  to 
the  good  and  capable.    The  idea  that  the 
good   and   capable   individual   arises   as   an 
accidental  or  self-created  product,  independ- 
ent of  heredity,  education  and  environment, 
is  enough  to  bring  a  smile  from  a  saint. 
/  Now  the  fact  is  that  this  personification 
of   Evil   as   an   active   force,   attacking  the 
Good,    is  not  applicable  to  the  individual 
life  at  all.   Nature  does  not  establish  moral 
laws,  distinguishing  the  good  from  the  evil. 
This  is  done  by  Society.    The  individual  is 
a  unit  and  is  not  divided  into  two  parts, 
one  bad  and  the  other  good. 

"In  my  breast 

Alas!  two  souls  dwell  —  all  there  is  unrest|„ 
Each  with  the  other  strives  for  mastery, 


I 


COMMENTS  65 

Each  from  the  other  struggles  to  be  free. 
One  to  the  fleshly  joys  which  coarse  earth 

yields, 
With  clumsy  tendrils  clings,  and  one  would 

rise 
In  native  power  and  vindicate  the  fields, 
Its  own  by  birthright  —  its  ancestral  skies." 

If  these  two  souls  are  to  be  understood  as 
typifying  Good  and  Evil  we  take  exception 
to  the  sentiment.  The  earthly  soul  is  not 
evil;  in  moderation  and  under  self-mastery 
it  is  good.  It  is  only  in  its  excesses  that  it 
is  evil.  It  is  only  through  the  existence  of 
favorable  conditions  for  the  earthly  soul 
that  the  heavenly  soul  itself  can  be  pro- 
perly developed.  The  heavenly  soul  is  not 
unqualifiedly  good,  regardless  of  time.  If  it 
were,  suicide  would  be  the  immediate  duty 
of  all.  These  two  souls  are  not  striving 
with  each  other  for  mastery  but  are  bound 
inseparably  together,  and  man  must  un- 
wearied still  strive  on  for  the  good  which 
both  afford  and  for  mastery  over  the  ex- 
tremes which  each  one  alone  would  lead  to. 
There  is  nothing  particularly  heavenly 
about  draining  a  sea  marsh  and  providing 


66  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

food  and  homes  for  a  colony  of  poor  peo- 
ple.   Yet  Faust  found  good  in  this. 

The  conception  of  Good  and  Evil  in  a 
moral  or  social  sense  was  not  developed  un- 
til the  coming  in  of  the  Property  Age  and 
the  division  of  society  into  two  classes,  the 
possessing  or  good  class,  and  the  properti- 
less  or  bad  class ;  and  afterwards  these  terms 
were  applied  to  individuals  according  to 
their  attitude  towards  the  property  class, 
as  being  friendly  or  hostile  to  it. 

It  is  remarkable  that  Plato,  the  first  real 
philosopher  in  a  civilized  State,  in  his  Re- 
public when  he  sets  out  to  define  what  is 
good  or  just,  postpones  the  application  of 
these  terms  to  the  individual  until  after  he 
has  first  determined  what  is  just  as  applied 
to  the  State,  saying  that  after  we  have  thus 
learned  to  read  JUSTICE  in  large  letters 
we  can  more  readily  decipher  it  when  writ- 
ten small  in  the  individual.  He  then  pro- 
ceeds to  show  in  a  roundabout  way  what 
in  substance  amounts  to  this,  viz :  that  those 
who  rule  or  ought  to  rule  are  good  and 
those  who  serve  are  bad.  Then  coming 
down  to  the  individual  he  shows  that  by 


COMMENTS  67 

analogy  the  governing  part  of  man,  i,  e.  his 
reason,  is  good  and  the  serving  parts,  the 
appetites  and  passions,  are  bad;  and  the 
good  man,  being  himself  ruled  by  his  rea- 
son, will  recognize  the  right  of  the  "reason- 
able class"  to  rule  in  the  State,  otherwise 
he  would  not  be  good.  All  of  which  amounts 
to  this :  that  inasmuch  as  only  those  can  rule 
in  a  State  who  either  control  its  property 
or  are  the  retainers  of  those  who  do,  and 
only  those  can  be  forced  to  serve  who  do 
so  from  economic  necessity,  the  good, 
broadly  speaking,  are  the  property  owners, 
including  their  retainers  who  constitute  the 
military  force,  and  the  bad  are  the  proper- 
tiless. 

Plato  does  not  represent  the  State  as  a 
magnified  individual,  as  many  have  errone- 
ously interpreted  him ;  on  the  contrary,  like 
Menenius  Agrippa  in  his  fable  to  the  Roman 
Plebeians,  taking  the  class  State  as  a  norm, 
Plato  represents  the  individual  as  a  miniat- 
ure class  State  and  applies  the  attributes  of 
the  State  to  the  individual.  Such  is  the 
power  of  social   environment  to  shape  un- 


(58  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

consciously   what   appears    to   be   the    free 
play  or  self-directed  activity  of  the  mind. 

What  is  called  reason  is,  however,  itself  a 
variable  quality;  people  do  not  agree  on 
what  is  reasonable  nor  on  what  persons  are 
wise  and  best  fitted  to  govern.  To  say  with 
Goethe  that  a  man  who  is  good  in  the  be- 
ginning will  turn  out  good  in  the  end,  and 
if  he  fails  to  do  so,  then  he  was  not  really 
good  in  the  beginning ;  or  to  say  with  Plato 
that  the  wise  man  is  just  and  the  just  man 
is  wise,  is  only  marking  time,  shifting  from 
one  foot  to  the  other  without  getting  for- 
ward; but  when  we  connect  justice  with  the 
material  world  and  human  life  by  saying 
that  it  is  only  the  interest  of  the  dominant 
economic  class,  or  from  the  opposite  stand- 
point that  it  is  the  interest  of  the  subject 
class,  we  have  got  past  the  stage  of  tautol- 
ogy and  invaded  the  realm  of  Property;  the 
hair  begins  to  bristle  and  the  fur  begins  to 
fly;  poetry  and  philosophy,  morality  and 
reason  give  way  to  vile  denunciations, 
coarse  threats  and  physical  force,  and  we 
then  get  our  first  taste  of  pure  justice  un- 
sugarcoated. 


COMMENTS  69 

Plato's  analogy  between  the  State  and  the 
Individual  is  of  course  lame.  Under  civili- 
zation the  State  is  not  an  institution  exist- 
ing for  the  common  benefit  of  all,  as  as- 
sumed by  Plato  and  by  all  other  philoso- 
phers down  to  the  present  time,  but  is  an 
exploitative,  military  organization  which  is 
only  the  tool  of  the  property  class ;  its  func- 
tion is  to  protect  this  class  against  its  so- 
called  "fellow"-citizens  at  home  and  to  aid 
it  in  conquering  and  subjugating  its  neigh- 
bors abroad.  The  art  of  managing  this  State 
is  classed  by  the  philosophers  as  a  separate 
profession  and  the  knowledge  required  for 
this  is  called  the  sum  of  all  wisdom.  But 
when  exploitation  comes  to  an  end  this 
particular  kind  of  wisdom  will  appear  fool- 
ishness and  will  die  out.  The  final  suprem- 
acy of  the  Avorking  class  pre-supposes  its 
training  by  evolution  to  the  point  where  it 
is  competent  for  industrial  administration, 
but  not  for  exploitative  government,  as 
"philosophers";  hence  this  class  can  never 
become  wise  and  good  in  Plato's  sense  nor 
in  Goethe's  either,  which  is  fundamentally 
the  same.    Faust  became  at  the  close  of  his 


70  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

life  as  perfect  a  philosopher  and  ruler  as 
Plato  could  wish  for;  but  he  required  the 
assistance  of  the  Devil  to  execute  his  or- 
ders. 

To  personify  the  subject  class  as  an  Evil 
Being,  seeking  to  destroy  the  ruling  class, 
would  be  perfectly  correct.  With  what  un- 
disguised gusto  could  Mephistopheles,  em- 
bodying the  spirit  of  the  despised  bourge- 
oisie of  the  i8th  Century,  scoff  at  every- 
thing which  was  sacred  to  the  then  ruling 
class,  the  feudal  nobility!  For  a  picture  of 
the  Devil  Triumphant  we  must  turn  to  the 
Communist  Manifesto:  — 

"The  bourgeoisie  (class  devil),  wherever 
it  has  got  the  upper  hand,  has  put  an  end  to 
all  feudal,  patriarchal,  idyllic  relations.  It 
has  pitilessly  torn  asunder  the  motley  feu- 
dal ties  that  bound  man  to  his  "natural  su- 
periors," and  has  left  remaining  no  other 
nexus  between  man  and  man  than  naked 
self-interest,  callous  "cash  payment."  It  has 
drowned  the  most  heavenly  ecstacies  of  re- 
ligious fervor,  of  chivalrous  enthusiasm,  of 
Philistine  sentimentalism,  in  the  icy  water 
of  egotistical   calculation.    It  has   resolved 


COilMENTS  71 

personal  worth  into  exchange  vahie,  and  in 
place  of  the  numberless  indefeasible  char- 
tered freedoms,  has  set  up  that  single,  un- 
conscionable freedom  —  Free  Trade  (and 
Free  Contract).  In  one  word,  for  exploita- 
tion, veiled  by  religious  and  political  illu- 
sions, it  has  substituted  naked,  shameless, 
direct,  brutal  exploitation.  The  bourgeoisie 
has  stripped  of  its  halo  every  occupation 
hitherto  honored  and  looked  up  to  with  rev- 
erent awe.  It  has  converted  the  physician, 
the  lawyer,  the  priest,  the  poet,  the  man  of 
science,  into  its  paid  wage  laborers." 

We  are  told  by  Bayard  Taylor  that 
Goethe  intended  in  the  second  part  of  Faust 
to  treat  of  politics,  but  gave  it  up  and  sub- 
stituted finance  and  paper  money  instead. 
If  this  be  true  it  shows  that  Goethe  had  at 
least  an  inkling  of  the  truth  that  somehow 
or  other  man's  social  life  has  something  to 
do  with  his  development  as  an  individual. 
But  Goethe  knew  enough  to  drop  a  hot 
potato.  He  would  not  have  to  study  polit- 
ical history  very  long  until  he  made  the- 
discovery  that  in  the  class  war  of  politics 
it    is    the    so-called   Evil  which  ultimately 


72  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

overthrows  the  Good  and  that  this  is  the 
law  of  social  progress.  The  reason  of  this 
is  that  an  individual,  being  a  ph3^sical  unit, 
may  be  reformed  or  changed  and  still  retain 
its  identity;  while  a  class  by  its  very  nature 
can  never  be  reformed:  the  only  way  to 
change  it  is  to  supplant  it  by  a  different 
class,  which  change  in  the  case  of  a  ruling 
class  amounts  to  a  revolution  and  to  a 
transposition  of  the  words  "good  and  evil," 
"right  and  wrong"  and  their  use  in  a  dif- 
ferent sense  from  before;  we  have  then 
crossed  the  social  equator  and  the  words 
"summer"  and  "winter"  have  the  reverse 
of  their  former  meaning. 

This  is  the  very  opposite  of  Goethe's 
"good  man"  theory  and  of  course  he  could 
make  no  use  of  politics  in  his  celebrated 
"tragedy."  All  of  Mephistopheles'  irony, 
sarcasm,  scorn,  sly  innuendoes,  sneers,  ven- 
om, cynicism,  contempt  and  pessimism, 
which  when  applied  in  individual  life  are 
unjustified  and  are  properly  described  as 
evil,  are  applied  with  perfect  propriety  and 
justice  by  a  subject  class  struggling  for  its 
life  against  the  oppression  of  a  domineering 
class. 


COMMENTS  73 

" •  Force  with  force 

"Is  well  ejected  when  the  conquered  can," 
says  Milton.    As  the  accepted  rules  of  war 
do  not  apply  between  a  civilized  nation  and 
savages,   so  also    they   do    not    apply    in    a 
war  of  one  class  against  another.    In  this 
war  there  are  no  proprieties.   Everything  is 
fair.     No  quarter  is  asked    or  given.    The 
class  which  is  down  has  nothing  to  lose. 
The  ruling  class  has  already  done  its  worst 
and  fears  its  subjects  as  the  only  devil  and 
loss  of  power  as  the  only  hell.  This  quality 
of  the  working  class  never  to  acquiesce  in 
its  condition    short  of    obtaining  complete 
mastery  of  its  masters  is  the  one  redeeming 
characteristic  which  puts  it  on  a  par  with 
Faust's  ceaseless  striving,  which  ultimately 
saves  him.    Such  is  the  Class  Devil  as  he 
really  exists  and  ultimately  prevails   over 
the  Good.  The  individual  devil  that  we  read 
about  as  tempting  the  good  man  to  do  evil 
is   merely   a   poetic   license   and   of   course 
never  wins  a  final  victory,  —  at  least  not 
over  a  "good"  and  "capable"  man.    He  is 
only  allowed  temporary  successes  to  keep 
up  the  interest  in  the  play. 


74  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

Why  did  it  never  occur  to  Goethe  to  let 
his  typical  man  seek  happiness  in  the  role 
of  Wagner,  the  servant,  or  Valentine,  the 
common  soldier,  or  one  of  the  laborers  who 
with  pick  and  shovel  drained  the  marsh? 
Because  in  the  eye  of  a  Property  Society 
these  are  not  human  beings,  but  are  merely 
pawns,  like  Gretchen,  who  exist  only  for 
the  purpose  of  allowing  a  real  human  being 
like  Faust  to  work  out  what  is  pompously 
called  the  tremendous  "problems  of  life" 
that  present  themselves  to  the  bourgeois 
mind.  This  overpowering  sense  of  the 
"tremendosity"  of  human  "problems"  is 
one  of  the  manifestations  of  that  hypocrisy 
which  has  ever  characterized  the  domineer- 
ing class.  These  problems  are  nothing  more 
nor  less  than  how  to  keep  dow^n  the  subject 
class  and  make  it  believe  itself  incompetent 
to  assume  control  and  make  itself  happy. 
Overwhelmed  by  the  "tremendosity"  of  this 
problem,  the  bourgeois  mind  seeks  to  solve 
it  by  formulas  more  difficult  than  the  prob- 
lem itself.  For  instance,  ostensibly  the 
principal  problem  of  the  capitalist  class  is 
to  provide  for  the  employment,  prosperity 


COMMENTS  76 

and  happiness  of  the  working  class;  and 
this  is  the  problem  that  Faust  finally  un- 
dertook to  solve  by  reclaiming  the  marsh. 
Instead  of  doing  this  in  the  direct  way  by 
simply  giving  the  working  class  the  choic- 
est land  and  the  entire  product,  the  capital- 
ist class  withholds  a  large  part  of  this  prod- 
uct for  foreign  commerce;  then  it  builds 
an  expensive  navy  of  both  merchantmen 
and  battleships,  establishes  a  vast  consular 
system,  commercial  treaties,  tarifif  systems 
to  "protect"  labor  from  every  one  except 
those  who  are  robbing  it,  sends  armies 
abroad  to  conquer  colonies  and  markets, 
irrigates  deserts  at  home  or  drains  marshes 
a  la  Faust.  What  is  all  this  for,  anyhow? 
Answer:  "We  are  extending  our  commerce 
so  as  to  provide  for  the  employment  and 
welfare  of  our  working  class,"  We  repeat, 
this  is  what  is  called  solving  a  problem  by 
a  formula  more  difficult  than  the  problem 
itself.  No  wonder  it  causes  headaches  for 
the  bourgeoisie. 

Why  does  bourgeois  literature  always 
represent  the  struggle  with  the  supernat- 
ural as  an  individual  affair?  Instead  of  con- 


76  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

ceiving  this  contract  as  made  between  an 
individual  and  a  supernatural  power,  let  us 
try  to  conceive  it  as  made  between  the 
ruling  class  and  a  supernatural  power,  say 
with  God,  for  future  happiness  or  with 
Satan  for  present  happiness.  Then  it  will 
at  once  be  seen  that  the  supernatural  power 
is  nothing  but  the  ruling  class  itself.  For 
as  to  future  happiness,  when  and  where  did 
a  ruling  class  ever  efface  itself  here  to  win 
the  hereafter?  And  as  for  present  happi- 
ness, what  more  could  Satan  give  the  ruling 
class  than  it  now  gives  to  itself? 

^  ^  ^ 

Some  years  ago  the  producing  class  in 
Egypt  began  to  agitate  this  question  of 
Good  and  Evil,  Right  and  Wrong,  not  from 
an  individual  standpoint,  but  from  a  class 
standpoint.  They  had  been  rescued  from 
starvation  by  the  ruling  class  of  Egypt  and 
had  been  treated  so  well  that  they  had  mul- 
tiplied enormously.  Yet,  just  as  Faust  says, 
they  turned  rebels.  They  were  wholly  dead 
to  any  feeling  of  gratitude  towards  their 
benefactors.  They  decided  that  the  pre- 
requisite   of    all  justice    and  righteousness 


COMMENTS  77 

from  their  standpoint  was  economic  inde- 
pendence, and  to  accomplish  this  end  all 
crimes  were  justifiable,  if  contributing  to 
that  end  and  not  done  out  of  mere  wanton- 
ness. The  most  shocking-  measures  were 
taken  against  the  Egyptians.  The  French 
Revolution  with  its  Reign  of  Terror  was 
mild  compared  with  the  ten  plagues  and  the 
slaughter  of  the  first-born.  Finally,  with  the 
aid  of  a  supposed  supernatural  power  the 
end  was  accomplished ;  the  leading  civilized 
nation  of  the  then  world  was  humbled  and 
one  step  forward  was  taken  in  social  prog- 
ress by  the  victory  of  Evil  over  Good.  And, 
mark  well,  it  was  only  by  being  offered 
present  economic  advantage  that  the  de- 
pendent class  could  be  induced  to  place  any 
reliance  on  the  supernatural  leader  in  this 
struggle.  Classes  are  not  moved  by  prom- 
ises of  the  hereafter,  though  individuals 
sometimes  are.  The  deity  of  a  class  must 
and  does  invariably  stand  for  the  economic 
interests  of  that  class.  That  the  working 
class  and  the  master  class  cannot  worship 
the  same  god  was  as  true  in  the  days  of  the 
Pharaohs  as  it  is  today. 


78  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

Let  US  suppose  now  that  some  Egyptian 
Goethe,  a  councilor  at  the  court  of  Karl 
August  Pharaoh,  should  wish  to  write  a 
great  tragedy  on  the  dealings  of  supernat- 
ural powers  with  the  human  race  and  the 
conflict  between  Good  and  Evil  in  all  the 
phases  of  human  life ;  but  instead  of  taking 
for  his  theme  this  world  historic  class  strug- 
gle, should  select  some  obscure  member  of 
the  Egyptian  hierarchy  and  detail  his  in- 
dividual life  and  fidelity  to  his  caste  as 
showing  the  final  victory  of  Good  over  Evil ; 
could  anything  be  more  ridiculous?  And 
yet  he  would  only  be  doing  what  Goethe 
has  done  in  ignoring  the  epochal  social  con- 
flict of  his  day  and  writing  the  biography 
of  a  professor  as  an  illustration  of  the  con- 
flict between  Good  and  Evil,  —  a  professor, 
who  though  he  pretends  to  renounce  his 
religion  and  play  the  role  of  tough  boy  on 
the  surface,  yet  in  fact  remains  sound  to 
the  core    on  the  one  vital    point  of  class 

domination. 

*     *     * 

When  we  consider  the  mighty  longing  of 
Goethe's  soul  for  real  life  and  freedom,  like 


COMMENTS  79 

the  longing  of  the  Homunculus,  and  see 
how  he  was  hemmed  in  by  the  narrow  circle 
of  life  at  Weimar,  and  aside  from  that  hem- 
med in  by  the  property  organization  of  so- 
ciety, prevailing  among  all  the  advanced 
portions  of  the  human  race,  with  its  iron- 
clad customs,  laws  and  institutions,  evolved 
and  administered  not  to  promote  human  free- 
dom, but  to  maintain  the  supremacy  of  a 
small  class  against  the  ceaseless  struggles 
of  the  suppressed  mass  of  mankind  and 
against  the  single-handed  efforts  of  here 
and  there  a  Titanic  individual,  always  re- 
sulting in  his  own  destruction  :  — 

"Who  may  dare 
To  name  things  by  their  real  names?    The 

few 
Who  did  know  something  and  were  weak 

enough 
To  expose  their  hearts  unguarded  —  to  ex- 
pose 
Their  views  and  feelings  to  the  eyes  of  men, 
They  have  been  nailed  to  crosses  —  thrown 
to  flames." 

And  when  we  consider  further  that  this 


80  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

had  been  the  condition  of  humanity  during 
all  those  periods  of  history  about  which  in 
Goethe's  time  anything  definite  was  known ; 
and  that  Goethe  clearly  realized  the  fact  of 
this  oppression  and  sympathized  with  the 
oppressed,  as  many  passages  in  his  works 
show,  but  could  not  attain  to  an  under- 
standing of  what  this  mysterious  and  ap- 
parently absurd  social  phenomenon  meant 
and  could  not  trace  its  source  nor  outcome ; 
and  when  we  consider  further  what  Goethe 
had  seen  and  sufifered  under  the  French 
Revolution  and  the  wars  arising  out  of  it ; 
and  the  fact  that  though  he  had  become 
sufficiently  emancipated  on  the  religious  and 
philosophical  side,  his  social  standing  as 
well  as  the  backward  political  condition  of 
the  Fatherland  prevented  him  from  sym- 
pathizing with  the  democracy  or  seeing  any 
hope  in  it;  in  view  of  all  this,  is  it  any 
wonder  that  Goethe  despaired  of  finding 
happiness  in  the  sphere  of  normal  human 
society  under  these  conditions,  but  like  a 
monk  who  renounces  civil  life,  Goethe  let 
his  hero  find  his  ultimate  happiness  in  a 
secluded  corner  of  the  world,  inflicting  so- 


COMMENTS  81 

called  benefits  upon  those  who  do  the  actual 
work  of  his  microcosmic  community  while 
he  himself  stands  aloof  from  them. 

Faust,  notwithstanding  his  delusions  to 
the  contrary,  ended  about  where  he  began. 
He  began  as  a  book  worm,  and  complained 
that  although  he  knew  books  he  knew 
nothing  of  men  and  the  world.  He  there- 
fore proceeds  to  go  through  what  he  is 
pleased  to  call  a  course  of  experience  in  the 
world,  in  which  he  experiences  everything 
except  the  one  thing  necessary  to  ex- 
perience, viz.,  producing  his  own  livelihood' 
side  by  side  with  his  fellowmen  and  co- 
operating with  them  politically.  He  winds 
up  not  as  one  of  the  world  himself  but  as  a 
benefactor  of  the  world  from  the  outside. 
He  goes,  as  it  were,  into  the  old  clothes 
donation  business  on  a  large  scale;  instead 
of  clothes  he  donates  second  rate  scraps  of 
land  to  the  homeless  or  to  those  few  of  the 
homeless  that  he  can  directly  reach,  and 
claims  the  gratitude  due  to  a  benefactor. 
But  the  literary  and  scientific  labors  of  a 
bookworm  inure  ultimately  to  the  benefit  of 
others  and  entitle  him  also  to  the  rank  of  a 


83  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

—J 

benefactor.      So    that    Faust    has    changed 
himself   from    a   benevolent   distributer   of 
knowledge  into  a  benevolent    distributer  of^ 
marsh    land.      He    began    as    a    four-times 
doctor.    He  quit  with  one  additional  title, — 
Doctor  of  Philanthropy;  that  is  all.     Were 
it  not  for  the  fact  that  he  acts  as  gravedigger 
for  his  ideals  as  well  as  his  body,  the  re- 
mark of  Mephistopheles  would  be  true,  viz : 
that  his  death  left  things  just  the  same  as  if 
he  had  never  lived.     He  is  still  outside  of 
real   productive   society,    real   life,   and   his 
benevolence  produces  merely  a  happiness  of 
despair,  the  same  as  the  Stoic  philosophy 
and   Christian   religion    (when   confined   to 
private  life  only)   are  the  consolation  of  a 
soul  resigned,   either   temporarily   or   perma- 
nently to  a  condition  of  mental   servitude 
which  despairs  of  working  class  emancipa- 
tion, i.  e.  race  emancipation.     It  is  the  con- 
dition  of  the   resigned,   confirmed   and   in- 
corrigible pessimist  with  a  forced  cheerful- 
ness in  his  despair,  suggestive  of  the  "Smile 
that    won't    come    ofif",     which    is    only    a 
modification   of   the   Mephistophelean   grin. 
He  postpones  all  his  noble  aspirations  until 


COMMENTS  83 

the  future  life  and  so  far  as  this  world  is 
concerned  he  is  as  completely  without  faith 
or  hope  as  the  Old  Sinner  himself.  It  is 
only  with  reference  to  the  future  life  that 
hope  finds  a  place  in  his  bosom.  The  "de- 
pravity of  human  nature"  is  the  broad  cloak 
with  which  he  covers  and  excuses  not  only 
the  vices  and  crimes  of  individuals,  but  also 
the  injustice  of  the  governing  class,  thus 
maintaining  that  class  government  is  an 
inherent  part  of  "human  nature." 

Dr.  George  Weber  in  his  Universal 
History  recognizes  the  unsatisfactory  char- 
acter of  the  concluding  part  of  Faust,  with- 
out knowing  the  seat  of  the  difficulty.  He 
puts  the  matter  thus : 

"In  order  to  bring  the  Faust  poem  (Part 
I)  to  a  satisfactory  close  it  would  be  neces- 
sary to  bring  about  a  reconciliation  between 
man's  spiritual  freedom  and  development 
and  his  sensual  nature ;  for  only  in  this 
harmony  of  the  highest  spiritual  develop- 
ment with  the  strong  passions  of  a  healthy 
nature  is  found  the  ideal  of  a  perfect  man. 
To  establish  this  harmonious  union,  and  to 
guide  man,  so  organized,  into  real  and  active 


84  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

life, — to  let  deeds  follow  upon  the  heels 
of  knowledge  and  enjoyment, — this  would 
have  been  the  problem  of  the  Second  Part  of 
Faust.  But  neither  the  numerous  con- 
tinuations which  Goethe  himself  invited 
others  to  attempt,  (which,  moreover,  were 
only  repetitions),  nor  Goethe's  own  Second 
Part,  which  betrays  the  marks  of  old  age 
and  of  changed  views,  can  be  considered  as  a 
successful  solution  of  this  problem," 

We  reply  that  Goethe  has  solved  the 
problem  as  well  as  it  can  be  solved  from  a 
class  standpoint.  He  has  represented  economic 
charity,  class  charity,  as  the  pinnacle  of 
human  happiness, — higher  than  justice,  be- 
cause justice  between  classes  is  a  thing 
inconceivable  to  the  bourgeois  mind.  In 
fact  "justice"  in  its  technical  sense  is  a 
product  of  class  civilization  and  is  hence 
irreconcilable  with  Social  Solidarity.  Social 
justice  is  a  negation  of  the  idea  of  justice 
in  the  same  way  that  common  or  public 
property  is  a  negation  of  the  idea  of 
property.  The  difficulty  exists  not  in 
Goethe's  old  age  nor  in  the  method  of  the 
solution,  but  in  the  fact  that  the  problem 


COMMENTS  86 

itself,  which  Weber  states,  is  iinsolvable 
until  classes  have  been  abolished.  Until 
then  the  perfect  or  near-perfect  man  must 
divide  his  life  between  profit  grinding  on 
one  hand  and  charity  dispensing  on  the 
other,  as  Carnegie  and  Rockefeller  have 
done.  No  reconciliation  between  man's 
spiritual  development  and  his  sensual  nature 
can  take  place  until  after  there  has  been  a 
reconciliation  between  the  individual  and 
society,  for  the  reason  that  man's  spiritual 
freedom  and  development  involve  questions 
relating  to  social  life,  upon  which  depend 
our  definitions  of  Good  and  Evil. 

We  cannot  therefore  agree  with  Bayard 
Taylor  \vhen  he  says  that  in  Faust  we  find 
the  problem  of  Good  and  Evil  simply  stated 
and  sublimely  solved,  by  the  discovery  that 
only  in  working  for  the  benefit  of  his  fellow 
beings  can  man  taste  happiness.  This  is  a 
luxury  which  very  few  can  enjoy  in  the 
manner  that  Faust  employed.  It  is  all  right 
for  these  few,  but  it  is  hard,  bitter  hard  on 
the  multitude  who  are  the  victims  of  this 
artificial  and  essentially  selfish  happiness. 
Not    in    working    "for"    others    as    their 


86  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

domineering  benefactor  but  in  working 
"with"  others  as  an  equal  comrade  is 
happiness  to  be  found.  If  we  must  have 
benevolence,  let  it  not  be  one  sided,  but 
reciprocal. 

Our  conclusion,  then,  is  that  Goethe 
judged  from  a  socialist  standpoint,  although 
his  intentions  were  all  right  and  he  did  as 
well  as  any  one  could  in  his  circumstances, 
nevertheless  undertook  too  big  a  job  for  a 
Property  Homunculus.  In  attempting  to 
treat  of  Good  and  Evil  as  absolute  qualities, 
he  made  a  botch  of  it.  The  Property  Age  is 
not  the  absolute  age,  much  less  is  the  Bour- 
geois Division  of  it  the  final  resting  stage  of 
humanity.  The  Working  Class  Devil  will 
overthrow  it  and  establish  a  dififerent  kind 
of  happiness  and  a  different  kind  of  good 
and  of  evil. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  MODEL  COLONY:    FREEDOM, 

Goethe  began  to  work  on  Faust  in  1774 
when  he  was  twenty-five  years  old.  Part  I 
was  substantially  finished  before  the  out- 
break of  the  French  Revolution,  though  it 
was  not  published  till  1790.  Faust's  restless 
and  defiant  spirit  is  typical  of  the  seething 
activity  of  the  intellectual  world  in  those 
pre-revolutionary  years.  Part  II  occupied 
Goethe  at  intervals  during  the  rest  of  his 
life  and  was  finished  in  1831,  a  few  months 
before  he  died  at  the  ripe  age  of  eighty  two 
years.  When  he  began  this  work  French 
Rationalism  was  at  its  height ;  all  of  the  old 
institutions  of  society  were  subjected  to 
unsparing  criticism.  So  far  as  this  was 
directed  against  the  church  and  priestcraft 
Goethe  joined  heartily  in  it.  He  never  lets 
an  opportunity  slip  to  take  a  fling  at  the 
priests.  But  he  drew  the  line  at  democracy 
and  materialism.     He  had  been  elevated  to 

87 


88  GOETHETS  FAUST 

the  ranks  of  the  nobility  and  was  an  ideal- 
ist. Democracy  was  at  that  time  exclusively 
political,  and  materialism  was  gross  and 
physical.  Goethe  could  not  foresee  that 
democracy  was  to  expand  so  as  to  include 
modern  industry  and  afiford  a  basis  for  a 
universal  nobility,  and  that  materialism  was 
to  expand  so  as  to  include  the  world  of  mind 
and  imagination  and  become  idealistic.  Too 
enlightened  and  honest  to  accept  the 
catechism,  too  sentimental  to  be  satisfied 
with  the  then  current  one-sided  rationalism, 
he  found  in  the  heart  of  woman  that  self- 
sacrificing,  unquenchable,  all-forgiving  and 
all-forgetting  love  and  inspiration  which  for 
him  answered  the  purpose  of  both  philos- 
ophy and  religion. 

As  for  politics,  he  got  as  far  as  benevolent 
paternalism  and  let  it  rest  at  that.  After 
the  victory  over  the  Anti-Emperor  and  his 
forces  the  Archbishop,  in  the  double  role  of 
Archbishop  and  Chancellor,  impresses  on 
the  Kaiser  the  magnitude  of  his  sin  in 
allying  himself  with  the  powers  of  darkness. 
To  atone  for  this  nothing  will  suffice  except 
the  most  liberal  donations  to  the  Church  and 


THE    MODEL    COLONY:    FREEDOM  89 

tithes  from  the  whole  reahn ;  and  it  is  only 
with  difficulty  that  he  is  prevented  from 
claiming  tithes  from  the  sea  which  overflows 
Faust's  land.  But  the  worm  at  last  turns, 
and  this  is  refused.  Whatever  the  defects 
of  Faustdorf  were,  Goethe  with  masterful 
satire  rescued  it  from  the  clutches  of  the 
Church,  though  he  could  not  shake  off 
Mephistopheles.  But  if  the  class-state  is 
forever  compelled  to  choose  between  an 
alliance  with  the  Church  on  one  hand  and 
the  Devil  on  the  other,  it  is  truly  in  a  sorry 
plight. 

Between  the  time  of  beginning  Faust  in 
1774  and  finishing  it  in  1831  the  French 
Revolution  had  come  and  gone  (apparent- 
ly) ;  the  Napoleonic  wars  were  all  over ; 
democracy  had  failed;  the  Bourbons  were 
back  on  the  throne  and  the  Holy  Alliance 
had  reached  the  height  of  its  power.  All 
that  even  well-intentioned  men  of  those 
times  asked  for  was  that  the  people  be 
treated  with  mercy  and  benevolence,  but 
ruled  with  a  strong  hand.  The  watchword 
was,  "Everything  for  the  people,  nothing  by 
the  people."     There  is   no  doubt    that    in 


90  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

Part  II  of  Faust  Goethe  has  caught  the  true 
spirit  of  the  times  and  environment  in  which 
he  lived  as  regards  the  relations  of  ruler  and 
ruled.  We  see  reflected  here  the  spirit  of 
feudal  reactionism  as  truly  as  the  struggles 
of  the  English  Revolution  are  reflected  in 
Paradise  Lost,  or  as  the  spirit  of  universal 
empire,  joined  but  not  subject  to  a  universal 
church,  is  reflected  in  the  work  of  Dante, 
the  Ghibelline.  All  these  works  are  by  men 
who  were  more  than  poets;  they  had  ab- 
sorbed all  history,  literature  and  science 
down  to  their  respective  times  and  combined 
and  moulded  this  mass  into  their  immortal 
works,  tinged  with  the  characteristics  both 
of  the  individual  authors  and  of  the  social 
organizations  in  which  they  lived. 

In  order  to  be  fair  towards  Goethe  we 
here  give  Faust's  last  words,  his  Swan  Song 
in  full  :— 

"Below  the  hills  a  marshy  plain 

Infects  what  I  so  long  have  been  retrieving: 

This  stagnant  pool  likewise  to  drain 

Were  now  my  latest  and  my  best  achieving. 

To  many  millions  let  me  furnish  soil. 

Though  not  secure,  yet  free  to  active  toil ; 


THE    MODEL    COLONY:    FREEDOM  91 

Green,  fertile  fields,  where  men  and  herds 

go  forth 
At  once,  with  comfort,  on  the  newest  Earth, 
And  swiftly  settled  on  the  hill's  firm  base, 
Created  by  the  bold,  industrious  race. 
A  land  like  Paradise  here,  round  about; 
Up  to  the  brink  the  tide  may  roar  without. 
And  though  it  gnaw,  to  burst  with  force  the 

limit, 
By  common  impulse  all  unite  to  hem  it. 
Yes!    to    this    thought    I    hold    with    firm 

persistence; 
The  last  result  of  wisdom  stamps  it  true : 
He  only  earns  his  freedom  and  existence. 
Who  daily  conquers  them  anew. 
Thus  here,  by  dangers  girt,  shall  glide  away 
Of  childhood,   manhood,  age,  the  vigorous 

day: 
And  such  a  throng  I  fain  would  see, — 
Stand  on  free  soil  among  a  people  free! 
Then  dared  I  hail  the  Moment  fleeing: 
"Ah,  still  delay — thou  art  so  fair." 
The  traces  cannot,  of  mine  earthly  being. 
In  aeons  perish, — they  are  there! — 
In  proud  fore-feeling  of  such  lofty  bliss, 
I  now  enjoy  the  highest  Moment, — this!" 


92  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

The  subjection  of  external  nature  to  the 
needs  of  man  which  Faust  aims  at  in  re- 
claiming the  marshy  sea  coast  is  a  good 
thing.  It  is  one  element  of  human  progress. 
It  can  be  accomplished  by  social  effort  only. 
Faust  makes  use  of  social  power  but  seems 
entirely  blind  to  its  significance,  as  blind  as 
if  he  had  already  been  stricken  by  Care,  as 
he  finally  was.  This  subjugation  of  Nature 
should  be  considered  as  only  preliminary  to 
the  emancipation  of  the  race  from  the  King- 
dom of  necessity,  giving  it  the  conscious 
control  of  its  own  destiny.  This  result 
Faust  does  not  aim  at.  He  perverts  his 
subjugation  of  Nature  to  his  own  glorifica- 
tion and  to  providing  his  colony  with  the 
material  comforts  of  life,  accompanied  by 
what  he  calls  Freedom.  Nothing  is  said 
about  the  education  of  these  people.  The 
education  of  successive  generations  by 
means  of  written  language  and  numerals  is 
in  a  certain  sense  an  artificial  and  com- 
pulsory process,  but  it  is  a  necessary  part 
of  freedom.  And  this  is  only  elementary; 
next  comes  their  education  in  other  matters, 
particularly  in  political  affairs.     Then  it  is 


THE    MODEL    COLOXY:    FREEDOM  93 

all  over  with,  the  model  coloii}^  of  Freedom, 
Feudalism  and  Filanthropy. 

If  in  a  class  society  the  acme  of  happiness 
is  found  in  the  hopeless  social  conditions 
which  force  the  tender  hearted  to  take 
refuge  in  philanthropy,  so  much  the  worse 
for  class  society  and  the  literature  it  pro- 
duces; for  this  benevolence  is  exercised 
without  affecting  the  prime  source  of 
wretchedness,  class  subjection.  Philanthro- 
pists are  non-factional  as  between  the  differ- 
ent factions  of  the  property  class,  but  are 
not  non-partisan.  There  are  no  philanthro- 
pists but  such  as  oppose  the  working  class 
revolution  in  its  positive  activity.  As  soon 
as  a  philanthropist  opposes  property  rule 
and  advocates  working  class  supremacy  he 
is  dropped  off  the  list  of  philanthropists. 
Philanthropy  is  based  on  property  rule.  If 
the  essential  product  of  present  society  is  to 
be  simply  a  crop  of  philanthropfsts  on  one 
hand  and  an  ever  recurring  crop  of  helpless 
victims  on  the  other,  the  society  will  wither 
away  as  did  ancient  society  and  bring  forth 
no  offspring  capable  of  independent  life  and 
of   becoming   its    legitimate    successor.      The 


94  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

problem  is  not  how  to  supply  the  world 
Avith  benefactors,  but  how  to  eliminate 
benefactors  from  the  world  entirely  Cand 
substitute  social  justice  instead). 

Faust's  work  however,  in  draining  the 
marsh,  required  sacrifices: — 

"Human  victims  bled  and  suffered 
Nights  was  heard  the  cry  of  woe." 

If  you  think  that  progress  and  the  con- 
quest of  nature,  made  under  class  conditions 
for  profit  or  to  satisfy  the  cupidity  of  a 
morbid  philanthropist,  is  a  matter  of  holiday 
sport,  read  the  construction  reports  of  the 
Chicago  Drainage  Channel  or  any  similar 
work  and  learn  how  the  men  were  treated; 
how  they  worked;  what  food  and  shelter 
they  had ;  what  form  of  recreations ;  how 
they  were  mutilated,  suffered,  died,  their 
bodies  thrown  away  and  forgotten,  all  for 
the  sake  of  "human"  progress,  they  them- 
selves of  course  not  being  human. 

O  Progress,  what  crimes  are  committed 
in  thy  name!  Faust's  colony  was  won  by 
war,  drained  by  slaughter,  enriched  by 
piracy  and  supported  by  the  permanent 
subjection  of  the  people. 


THE    MODEL    COLONY:    FREEDOM  05 

In  our  most  advanced  industries  (the 
Steel  Works,  for  example)  it  has  become 
necessary  to  enclose  the  grounds  with  a 
wall  and  establish  private  hospitals  inside 
for  the  victims  of  "progress" ;  and  the 
records  of  these  so-called  "accidents"  are 
concealed  from  the  public  with  the  con- 
nivance of  the  civil  authorities  as  being  so 
horrible  that  their  exposure  would  endanger 
the  foundations  of  society. 

Or  read  the  history  of  the  Homestead 
strikes  and  learn  how  Philanthropist  Car- 
negie worked  for  human  progress.  We  are 
not  told  how  Faust  managed  his  strikes,  but 
we  can  easily  see  that  Mephistopheles  and 
his  rustlers  would  be  ideal  strike  breakers, 
from  the  way  they  treated  Baucis  and 
Philemon. 

Mephistopheles'  devil-may-care  report  on 
this  exploit  of  making  away  with  these 
helpless  old  people  forms  a  striking  passage. 
Instead  of  allowing  the  old  couple  to  make 
themselves  happy  in  their  own  way,  Faust 
was  determined  to  make  them  happy  in  his 
own  Avay,  so  as  to  have  the  selfish  pleasure 
of  seeing  them  grateful  to  him  for  economic 


96  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

blessings  bestowed  after  he  had  first  reduced 
them  to  want. 

"They  soon  will  learn  to  thank  me  and  to 

praise 
For  all  life's  blessings  in  life's  closing  days; 
Feel  how  much  I  have  served  them  and  the 

sight 
Of  their  contentment  will  give  me  delight." 

The  result  is,  they  are  killed  by  the  cure. 
One  of  the  deepest  lessons  of  life  and  one 
that  Faust  never  learned  is  to  allow  others 
not  only  the  naked  right,  but  also  the  inde- 
pendent and  inalienable  means  to  make 
themselves  happy  in  their  own  way,  and  not 
insist  on  forcing  them  into  a  position  where 
they  will  have  to  be  thankful  to  you  for 
helping  them. 

In  Faust's  treatment  of  Baucis  and  Phile- 
mon Goethe  pictures  the  covetousness  of 
the  rich  in  robbing  the  poor  as  being  the 
Great  Evil.  Again  he  has  missed  the  mark. 
He  strains  at  a  gnat  and  swallows  a  camel. 
Faust's  fundamental  crime  was  not  in  ruin- 
ing two  old  people,  but  in  the  exercise  of 
political  power  to  organize  a  whole  colony 


THE    MODEL    COLONY:    FREEDOM  97 

into  a  perpetual  condition  of  servitude  and 
degradation.  The  crimes  of  a  great  in- 
dividual are  as  insignificant  as  his  benevol- 
ence. It  is  not  the  occasional  crimes  of  the 
rulers  that  hurt.  Their  Old  and  Standing 
Iniquity  consists  in  their  class  honesty  and 
goodness.  It  is  when  the  honesty  and 
goodness  of  the  ruling  class  are  shown  at 
their  best  that  the  hopeless  condition  of  the 
working  class  stands  out  convincingly  in 
all  its  horrid  reality,  because  then  it  is  all 
the  more  inexcusable. 

The  quintessence  of  Faust's  wisdom  is 
expressed  in  the  lines: — 

"He  only  earns  his  freedom  and  his  living 
Who  daily  conquers  them  anew." 

It  reads  right.  But  Faust  himself  in 
another  place  has  raised  a  question  which, 
slightly  modified,  applies  here: 

"Ja  was  man  so  'verdienen'  heisst 
"Wer  darf  das  Kind  beim  rechten  Namen 
nennen?" 
"What  is  hight  'earning',  who  will  dare 
"To  call  the  child  by  its  right  name?" 

From  whom  are  we  to  "earn"  and  "con- 


98  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

quer"  our  freedom  and  livelihood?  Say, 
from  the  master  class?  And  these  latter, 
from  whom  do  they  "conquer"  their  liveli- 
hood.   Well,  let  that  pass  for  now. 

Freedom  is  something  which  can  neither 
be  earned  nor  conquered  by  anvbody  from 
anybody.  Neither  can  it  be  the  gift  of  a 
benefactor;  nor  can  it  be  found  in  any 
secluded  corner,  sheltered  from  fierce  social 
struggles.  It  can  only  be  won  by  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  main  stream  of  human  society 
through  successive  class  supremacies,  based 
on  advances  in  industrial  development,  and 
culminating  in  the  almost  miraculous  per- 
fection of  machinery  and  the  final  suprem- 
acy of  the  all-inclusive  and  class-abolishing 
working  class. 

We  think  we  do  Goethe  no  injustice 
when  we  assume  that  by  the  word  "Free- 
dom" he  means  that  kind  of  political  free- 
dom which  in  his  own  life-time  the  bour- 
geois class  was  trying  to  establish  in  lieu 
of  the  previously  existing  feudal  system 
of  government.  At  that  time  freedom  looked 
good.  What  this  "freedom"  means  we  are 
now  able  to  judge.  It  is  no  longer  a  question 


THE    MODEL    COLONY:    FREEDOM  99 

of  theory,  as  it  was  in  Goethe's  time.  It  has 
been  tested  in  practice,  has  exhausted  the 
good  which  it  was  capable  of  developing 
and  has  now  become  intolerable,  being  a 
clog  to  further  progress.  It  means  the 
freedom  of  the  strong  to  destroy  the 
freedom  of  the  weak.  The  pen  of  Goethe 
himself  would  be  inadequate  to  describe  the 
travesty  of  freedom  which  Goethe's  ideal 
freedom  has  resulted  in.  Bourgeois  freedom 
means  freedom  of  exploitation,  which  in- 
volves economic  dependence ;  hence  efifect- 
ive,  economic  freedom  is  a  negation  of 
bourgeois  freedom  and  is  called  the  "Coming 
Slavery". 

It  may  appear  to  some  that  our  comments 
are  flippant  and  savor  too  much  of  Goethe's 
Baccalaureus,  Perhaps  so.  Nothing  which 
attacks  the  present  order  of  society  could 
be  in  good  form,  no  matter  what  shape  it 
took.  An  attack  on  proprietorship  necessari- 
ly involves  a  violation  of  the  proprieties. 
But  we  speak  not  by  our  own  power, 
we  are  pleading  the  cause  of  a  class ; 
and  if  our  words  have  any  weight  it  will  be 
owing  to  that  fact.    And  we  are  willing  to 


100  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

pit  our  flippancy  against  that  genteel  ignor- 
ance, intellectual  dishonesty  and  silent 
denial  of  daylight  facts,  which  form  the 
distinguishing  characteristic  of  ruling  class 
moralists  to-day,  and  make  the  frank  brutal- 
ity of  the  slavery-  age  appear  almost  a 
virtue.  What  in  Goethe's  time  might  be 
excused  as  owing  in  some  degree  to  an 
honest  ignorance  or  unconsciousness  is  to- 
day nothing  but  pure  cussedness,  (say 
simulated  unprejudice,  or  class  interest  con- 
cealed). This  agnosticism  or  apodictic  un- 
certainty of  capitalist  moralists  as  to  the 
claims  of  the  proletariat  appears  all  the 
more  ridiculous  when  contrasted  with  their 
positive  support  of  the  "vested  rights"  of 
their  patrons.  This  pride  of  assumed 
impartiality  which  declines  to  be  classified  is 
simply  a  cheap  form  of  self-flattery. 

The  final  and  ticklish  problem  before 
Goethe'  was  how  to  smuggle  Faust  into 
heaven  and  thus  bring  the  story  to  a  happy 
conclusion,  like  getting  the  lovers  married 
at  the  end  of  a  novel.  He  cannot  get  in  by 
the  door  of  Christ,  so  much  is  certain.    His 


THE    MODEL    COLONY:    FREEDOM  101 

confession  of  Faith,  as  delivered  to  Care, 
has  not  a  very  striking  similarity  to  the 
Apostles'  Creed;  Baucis  and  Philemon  will 
not  help  him  to  get  in,  nor  will  the  work- 
men whose  lives  were  ruthlessly  sacrificed 
in  draining  the  marsh.  Helena  is  of  no  use 
to  him.  We  would  have  expected  that  the 
v  Lord,  who  turned  him  over  to  Mephisto- 
'^  pheles  in  the  beginning  would  now  appear 
and  say :  "Well  done,  thou  good  and  faithful 
servant,  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy 
Lord;"  but  no  Lord  appears.  So  he  must 
fall  back  on  Gretchen,  the  magdalens  and 
mater  gloriosa.  It  is  her  unfathomable  love 
which  saves  Faust's  soul  without  any 
mediation  of  Christ.  The  Catholic  worship 
of  the  Virgin  Mary  fits  in  nicely  with 
Goethe's  idea  of  Eternal  Womanhood  as  the 
elevating  and  saving  force.  It  would  further 
appear  from  the  characters  in  the  last  scene 
that  a  woman  has  to  repent  before  she  gets 
into  heaven,  but  a  man  doesn't.  This  is  a 
striking  commentary  on  the  peculiar  ethical 
code  by  which  a  sin,  common  to  both,  ruins 
the  woman  but  leaves  the  man  unscathed. 
Woman's  love  deified  is  certainly  a  very 


102  GOETHE'S  FJnrST 

pretty  idol.  If  we  had  to  choose  as  an  idol 
some  fraction  of  the  Universe  we  think  we 
should  choose  this.  Hut  we  make  the  same 
objection  to  it  that  we  make  to  Helena's 
beauty — viz.  it  is  transitory.  In  order  to 
make  it  eternal  it  must  be  transferred  to 
heaven.  But  if  Helena's  beauty  had  been 
transferred  to  heaven  it  too  would  have  been 
eternal  and  might  have  served  Faust  for  an 
idol  just  as  well.  But  as  there  is  some 
doubt  whether  there  is  any  heaven  which 
can  exist  outside  of  and  beyond  the  infinite 
Universe,  the  only  thing  left  which  is 
eternal  is  the  ever  changing  and  ever  ident- 
ical Kosmos  or  totality  of  all  idols,  both 
material  and  ideal,  earthly  and  heavenly, 
considered  as  a  Unit;  and  the  man  who 
worships  this  will  never  be  in  danger  of 
having  his  idol  taken  away  from  him. 

But  after  all  we  have  no  desire  to  criticize 
Goethe's  plan  of  salvation.  In  fact  we  are 
able  to  derive  some  comfort  from  it.  If 
Infinite  Love,  working  spontaneously,  will 
save  such  as  Faust,  who  lived  a  life  of  un- 
restrained self-indulgence  at  the  expense  of 
others   (accompanied,  it  is  true,  by  a  laud- 


THE    MODEL    COLONY:    FREEDOM         103 

able  striving  for  advancement)  without 
remorse  and  without  any  apparent  effort  to 
sharpen  his  conscience  or  even  to  have  any 
conscience  of  any  kind,  we  may  certainly 
rest  easy  as  to  the  future  of  those  who  hold 
themselves  responsible  not  only  for  their 
acts,  but  also  to  some  extent  for  the  state  of 
their  conscience  itself,  and  do  not  satisfy 
themselves  with  the  approval  of  a  conscience 
which  has  never  been  aroused  from  a 
comatose  or  morbid  state.  A  man  is 
responsible  for  the  healthy  condition  of  his 
conscience,  no  less  (and  no  more)  than  for 
the  healthy  condition  of  his  body.  His 
control  over  both,  though  not  absolute,  is 
considerable. 

It  is  generally  assumed  that  conscience  is 
a  uniform,  invariable  factor,  alwaj'-s  right. 
Yet  some  of  the  greatest  crimes  of  history 
have  been  committed  under  mistake  of 
conscience.  The  uprightness  of  "conscience" 
is  as  much  a  myth  as  its  opposite,  called 
the  "depravity  of  human  nature*'.  In  the 
Prologue  the  Lord  skilfully  dodged  this 
point  by  saying  that  the  conscience  of  a 
good  man  will  keep  Rim  in  the  right  way. 


104  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

Yes,  a  good  man  will  go  right  without  any 
conscience.  But  as  the  Lord  omitted  to 
define  a  good  man  we  will  here  supply  that 
oversight: —  A  man  whose  conscience  is 
moulded  by  the  ruling  class  is  a  good  man ; 
and  one  whose  conscience  is  moulded  by  the 
subject  class  is  a  bad  man^  an  undesirable 
citizen.  Faust,  when  he  became  old  and 
wise  fulfilled  the  Lord's  prophecy.  He 
assisted  the  Emperor  to  put  down  the 
revolution  and  took  good  care  to  provide  for 
his  own  colonists  in  such  a  way  that  they 
would  never  revolt,  (so  he  hoped). 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   GRETCHEN  TRAGEDY. 

Let  US  now  go  back  to  the  pseudo- 
tragedy  of  Gretchen,  which  occupies  about 
one  half  of  Part  I  in  space  and  more  than 
that  in  popular  interest. 

If  Goethe's  idea  of  women  does  not  coin- 
cide with  that  of  Euripides,  viz.,  that  one 
man  is  worth  ten  thousand  women,  it  is 
certain  that  in  Goethe's  time  their  social 
position  and  learning  sank  into  insignific- 
ance when  compared  with  an  intellectual 
giant  like  Faust.  We  cannot  discuss  here 
the  large  question  of  the  wretched  position 
of  the  female  sex  during  the  entire  Property 
Age.  But  we  shall  take  exception  to  the 
practice  of  treating  seduction  as  the  subject 
of  a  tragedy,  no  matter  how  beautifully  it 
may  be  handled.  If  it  be  excused  as  a 
necessary  part  of  a  great  man's  experience  in 
class  society  then  again  we  say,  so  much 
the  worse  for  class  society. 

105 


106  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

Gretchen  was  a  pure,  young  girl,  a  devout 
Catholic,  almost  a  child  in  experience.  Her 
mother  is  a  widow  and  p^r,  of  course. 
Necessarily  poor,  or  you  couldn't  make  the 
tragedy.  Gretchen's  education  has  been 
neglected  and  she  is  overworked  from  dawn 
till  dark. — No  need  of  going  any  farther. 
There  is  the  tragedy  right  there !  Stop  and 
think  a  moment.  A  girl  "past  fourteen"; 
no  father,  no  property,  no  education,  no 
experience. 

"Must  cook,  knit,  sew,  must  wash  and  dry; 
Run  far  and  near^ — rise  ere  the  light. 
And  not  lie  down  till  late  at  night." 

Isn't  that  tragedy  enough?  One  would 
think  so  for  a  person  of  normal  taste.  But 
the  morbid  taste  of  class  society  demands 
"hot  stuflf".  It  finds  its  highest  entertain- 
ment in  the  unhappy  condition  of  its  own 
victims. 

The  first  step,  of  course,  towards  winning 
Gretchen's  attention  is  to  give  her  what  she 
lacks  most, — property.  A  casket  of  jewels  is 
sent  her.  Why  that?  If  Gretchen  is  a 
human  being  in  the  pursuit  of  happiness, 
why    shouldn't    she    give    Faust    a  box    of 


THE  GRETCHEN  TRAGEDY  107 

jewelry, — gold  watch,  cuff  buttons,  diamond 
stud  and  all.  Think  what  pleasure  it  would 
have  given  her  to  witness  Faust's  gratitude 
for  such  a  gift.  But  that  is  not  the  way  to 
make  a  tragedy;  Gretchen  is  not  a  human 
being  and  has  no  right  to  pursue  happiness. 
Faust  monopolizes  this  business  for  himself. 
What  would  an  economically  independent 
girl,  with  an  economically  independent 
mother  and  the  education  and  training 
which  this  implies,  care  for  a  casket  of 
jewels  from  a  stranger?  It  would  be  re- 
sented as  an  insult.  That  the  underlying 
cause  of  seduction  in  a  majority  of  cases  is 
an  economic  one  is  so  generally  recognized 
as  to  need  no  proof.  The  overworked  and 
underpaid  department  store  and  sweat  shop 
girls  are  regularly,  almost  proverbially, 
cited  in  illustration  of  this.  But  not  only 
in  the  inception  of  the  evil  is  the  economic 
cause  predominant.  In  its  ultimate  results 
it  is  the  economic  condition  of  the  un- 
fortunate one  which  becomes  so  unbearable 
as  to  lead  to  despair.  She  is  deprived  of  the 
opportunity  to  earn  an  honorable  livelihood, 
even  if  she  is  able  and  willing  to  do  so. 


108  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

That  Gretchen's  moral  defect  is  not  fatal, 
Goethe  himself  has  shown  by  landing  her 
in  heaven,  and  if  she  is  good  enough  for 
heaven,  why  should  she  not  be  given  a 
chance  on  earth  instead  of  being  served  up 
as  material  for  a  tragedy?  Her  love  is  so 
pure  that  it  saves  Faust  in  spite  of  himself. 

When  Mephistopheles,  seeing  her  at 
Martha's  house  with  the  box  of  jewelry, 
pretends  to  take  her  for  a  "lady"  she  and 
Martha  are  perfectly  dumfounded,  and  in- 
form him  that  she  is  nothing  but  a  "poor 
girl."  The  seduction  of  a  "lady"  might 
furnish  material  for  the  yellow  newspapers, 
but  it  could  not  afiford  the  basis  for  a  high 
grade  literary  "tragedy."  It  lacks  the 
element  of  Economic  "Fate."  The  seduction 
tragedy  is  based  on  the  fictitious  necessity 
of  poverty  and  ignorance. 

It  requires  no  great  insight  to  see  that 
most  of  the  little  romances  and  love 
tragedies  which  Goethe  experienced  in  his 
own  life  and  which  caused  him  and  others 
that  infinite  sufifering  which  only  sensitive 
natures  can  understand,  were  owing  to 
economic  (and  hence  social)  differences  in 


THE  GRETCHEN  TRAGEDY  109 

the  situation  of  the  respective  parties  inter- 
ested. 

If  the  victim  in  these  cases  were  given  a 
chance  to  become  again  a  useful  member 
of  society,  doing  her  share  of  the  w^ork  and 
receiving  her  share  of  the  good  things  of 
life,  she  would,  it  is  true,  carry  a  sad  heart 
in  her  bosom,  but  all  the  other  noble 
qualities  of  a  human  being  would  still  be 
hers, — intelligence,  skill,  gentleness,  help- 
fulness, kindness,  truthfulness,  courage, 
justice,  yes,  even  "benevolence".  Just  think 
of  that!  Do  all  these  count  for  nothing? 
Is  the  mere  animal  side  of  woman  of  such 
paramount  importance  that  when  this  is 
once  marred,  nothing  is  left  of  her?  This 
is  the  characteristic  bourgeois  view  of 
woman  as  an  instrument  of  production  and 
sensuality.  Her  impairment  for  such 
purposes  is  looked  upon  as  depreciating  her 
commercial  value,  is  called  her  "ruin". 

So  deep  seated  is  this  commercial  estima- 
tion of  woman  and  so  ruthless  and  irresist- 
ible is  the  property  instinct  that  it  has  falsi- 
fied the  teaching  of  Christ  and  created  a 
sole    and    only    "scriptural"    ground     for 


110  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

divorce,  viz :  throwing  suspicion  on  the 
genuineness  of  a  paternal  heir  to  the  family 
estate.  Tolstoy  has  clearly  shown  that 
according  to  Christ's  teaching  there  is  no 
scriptural  ground  for  divorce  whatever.  It 
is  strange  that  his  acuteness  did  not  reveal 
to  him  the  reason  why  this  particular 
ground,  out  of  so  many,  was  interpolated 
as  the  one  necessary  concession  to  the 
Property  State;  and  this  would  have  led  to 
the  further  discovery  that  not  religion 
moulds  the  ruling  class,  but  on  the  contrary 
the  ruling  class  moulds  religion.  Instead 
of  the  Christian  marriage  being  adopted  by 
society,  the  property  marriage  has  been 
foisted  upon  Christianity. 

The  working  up  of  this  so-called  "ruin" 
of  a  lower  member  of  society  into  a 
factitious  and  frenzied  tragedy  is  the  high- 
est delight  of  those  who  think  that  the 
economic  conditions  created  by  their  own 
class  rank  the  same  for  tragic  purpose  as 
those  arising  from  the  uncontrollable  work- 
ings of  nature.  This,  of  course,  is  much 
nicer  than  to  allow  the  victim  to  become 
recuperated     through     the     beneficent     in- 


THE  GRETCHEN  TRAGEDY  HI 

fluences  of  nature  and  start  with  an  Alpine 
sunrise  to  begin  life  over  again,  as  did 
Faust.  The  essence  of  the  Tragic  is  that  it 
appear  inevitable.  The  moment  it  appears 
to  be  avoidable,  it  loses  its  tragic  force  and 
is  detected  as  a  spurious  article. 

There  is  another  point  that  must  not 
escape  us.  Gretchen  got  to  heaven  and 
welcomed  Faust  on  his  arrival  there.  But 
what  became  of  the  baby  that  was  thrown 
into  the  pond?  Did  Faust  welcome  it  in 
heaven?  It  is  the  constant  boast  of  modern 
society  that  it  protects  the  sanctity  of 
motherhood.  But  here  is  a  large  class  of 
mothers  whose  sufferings  are  ignored,  and 
who  are  looked  upon  as  a  burden  to  the 
taxpayers  and  who,  in  many  cases,  have  no 
other  course  but  to  abandon  or  murder  their 
off-spring,  for  which  a  merciful  God  may 
forgive  them,  but  Society  never  does.  This 
circumstance  gives  simply  additional  zest 
to  the  tragedy  in  the  eyes  of  a  bourgeois 
audience.  It  flatters  the  ruling  class  to 
reflect  that  its  laws  are  as  immutable  as 
fate. 

Why    not    have    Gretchen    appear    as    a 


112  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

Madonna  with  her  child  in  her  bosom,  as 
she  welcomes  Faust,  and  he  taking  it  and 
tossing  it  in  his  arms  for  joy.  But  no,  the 
bourgeois  heaven,  modeled  after  the  bour- 
geois eartTi,  will  not  stand  for  any  foolish- 
ness on  the  bastardy  question ;  it  touches  a 
property  right, — the  right  of  inheritance. 

Faust's  love  afifair  with  Helena  in  the 
castle  near  Sparta,  though  a  greater  breach 
of  morality  than  that  with  Gretchen, 
occasioned  no  tragedy,  not  even  a  ripple. 
The  child,  Euphorion,  instead  of  being 
drowned  in  a  pond  was  the  pride  and  joy  of 
the  entire  household.  That  is  the  difference 
between  the  law  of  the  castle  and  the  law 
of  the  "plain  room".  Wealth  stands  above 
the  moral  law.  It  is  wealth  (the  wealthy 
class)  that  moulds  the  moral  law  as  it 
pleases  and  pays  those  who  teach  it  as  so 
moulded.  "She  was  not  the  first  one", 
Goethe  lets  Mephistopheles  say.  No,  Goethe, 
and  (leider!)  she  will  not  be  the  last  one.  So 
long  as  the  Property  Age  endures  there  will 
be  thousands  like  her  every  year  in  spite  of 
your  Gretchen  tragedy.  Even  if  this  were 
played  in  all  the  theaters  of  the  land  every 


THE  GRETCHEN  TRAGEDY  113 

night  in  the  year  as  a  moral  lesson,  it  could 
have  but  little  effect  so  long  as  economic 
conditions  remain  unchanged ;  and  while 
these  are  ignored,  we  do  not  care  to  have 
you  try  your  skill  in  working  up  our  pity. 
It  is  not  a  fit  subject  for  that  purpose  and 
the  effort  falls  flat  upon  one  who  has  seen 
the  light. 

This  method  of  teaching  virtue  is  as 
roundabout  and  maladroit  as  the  capitalists' 
famous  plan  of  making  workingmen  happy 
by  extending  commerce,  etc.,  It  consists  of 
these  steps. 

1.  Provide  a  large  class  of  girls  oppressed 
by  poverty  and  ignorance  and  overwork. 

2.  Provide  a  class  of  wealthy  and  idle 
men  seeking  sensual  pleasure. 

3.  The  natural  result  will  then  happen. 

4.  Provide  a  great  poetical  genius  to 
write  a  tragedy  involving  a  seduction. 

5.  Have  it  played  in  the  theaters  as  a 
moral  lesson  and  warning  to  all  "good" 
men  and  girls. 


114  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

6.  Influence  on  the  aforesaid  working^ 
g\rls=0. 

We  object  therefore  to  seduction  as  a 
subject  of  tragedy  for  the  same  reason  that 
we  object  to  the  tramp  and  the  hobo  as  a 
subject  of  comedy  either  on  the  stage  or  in 
the  ilkistrated  papers.  The  reason  is,  that 
in  both  cases  the  victim  of  social  injustice  is 
utilized  for  the  entertainment  of  the  class 
which  is  responsible  for  the  wrong.  Viewed 
in  this  light,  there  is  nothing  comic  about 
the  one  nor  tragic  about  the  other. 

It  is  a  hopeful  sign  that  the  working  class 
has  now  reached  a  stage  where  it  no  longer 
enjoys  being  either  laughed  at  or  pitied  by 
its  masters.  It  is  imbued  with  a  seriousness 
which  does  not  admit  that  its  inferior  con- 
dition is  to  remain  an  accepted  fact — 
much  to  the  discomfort  and  unrest  of  the 
class  whose  highest  literature  is  rooted  in 
the  assumption  of  the  helplessness  of 
women  and  the  degradation  of  the  wealth 
producers. 

But  it  will  be  said  that  we  have  criticized 
a  poem,  a  work  of  art,  as  if  it  were  a 
philosophical  treatise.    No,  we  have  simply 


THE  GRETCHEN  TRAGEDY  US 

shown  that  in  Class  Society  the  highest 
poetry  reflects  merely  class  ideas,  —  is 
merely  class  poetry,  toy  poetry,  and  gets  its 
recognition,  its  standing  from  that  fact 
alone. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

GOETHE  AND  MILTON. 

Goethe  and  Alilton  were  separated  by 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  years.  It  is 
worth  while  with  a  few  rough  strokes  to 
compare  these  two  men.  Both  were  born 
in  important  cities  and  belonged  to  the  well- 
to-do  burgher  class.  Goethe's  father  was  a 
councilor,  Milton's  a  scrivener,  combining 
probably  the  work  of  an  attorney  and 
conveyancer.  Both  were  most  carefully 
educated  in  the  classics  from  early  youth, 
finished  the  University  and  continued  their 
studies  for  a  considerable  time  thereafter, 
Both  were  students  of  Italian  literature  and 
visited  Italy.  Milton  did  this  earlier  in  life, 
when  his  youthful  enthusiasm  led  him  even 
to  vie  with  the  native  poets  in  their  own 
tongue.  Goethe  made  the  journey  later  in 
life  and  devoted  more  attention  to  matters 
of  art.  Milton  was  the  more  intellectual ; 
his  mind  (and  we  had  almost  said  his  body) 

116 


GOETHE  AXD  MILTON  117 

was  scholarly  and  classical  of  the  purest 
type  and  his  whole  education  tended  to 
develop  this  character.  Aside  from  music, 
in  which  he  was  proficient,  he  does  not 
seem  to  have  cultivated  the  arts,  nor  the 
sciences  either.  In  his  Paradise  Lost, 
perhaps  for  poetic  reasons,  he  still  uses  the 
Ptolemaic  system  of  astronomy.  Goethe's 
range  of  studies  was  wider  and  embraced 
all  the  arts  and  sciences.  Also  the  influence 
of  French  literature  was  much  greater  on 
Goethe  than  on  Milton,  as  was  to  be  ex- 
pected, for  reasons  that  are  apparent.  Both 
exhibited  in  early  life  great  talent  for 
dramatic  writing.  Although  Milton's  trend 
in  this  direction  was  checked  by  external 
circumstances,  his  ability  was  unquestioned. 
Goethe  was  able  to  give  full  swing  to  his 
genius  in  this  field. 

In  their  marriage  relations  both  were  un- 
fortunate. Milton,  having  experienced  the 
domestic  inferno,  was  too  honest  and 
courageous  to  tamely  submit  in  silence,  as 
many  do,  but  straightway  wrote  his  treat- 
ises on  Divorce,  proved  the  righteousness 
of  divorce  for  incompatibility  by  the  infall- 


118  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

ible  authority  of  the  Bible  and  set  the  ideal 
of  domestic  liberty  on  a  par  with  religious 
and  civil  liberty.  Finding  polygamy  justi- 
fied by  the  Old  Testament,  he  justified 
polygamy.  He  did  not  assume  to  be  wiser 
than  the  God  of  Abraham.  Goethe,  having 
entered  into  an  unfortunate  domestic  rela- 
tion, bore  it  to  the  end  with  a  fortitude  and 
constancy  which  commands  our  profoundest 
respect.  He  wrote  his  Elective  Affinities, 
which,  contrary  to  popular  opinion,  teaches 
that  marriage  is  or  should  be  indissoluble 
upon  any  ground  whatever.  On  the  marriage 
question  we  should  say  that  the  supposed 
Epicurean  stands  on  as  high  a  plane  of 
morality  as  the  pretentious  Christian,  if  not 
higher. 

Milton's  supposed  puritanism  is  as  dis- 
tasteful to  the  Germans  as  Goethe's 
supposed  libertinism  is  to  the  English,  and 
prejudice  in  both  cases  has  no  doubt  pre- 
vented many  from  appreciating  these  two 
men.  Goethe's  Teutonic  physique  and 
exuberant  spirits  and  vitality  would  make 
poets  like  Spenser  and  Milton  seem  to  him 
squeamish,    cold    and    self-righteous.     The 


GOETHE  AND  MILTON  119 

hearty,  lusty  humanness  and  animalism  of 
Chaucer,  Shakespeare  and  Byron  was  more 
congenial  to  the  poet  who  could  write  the 
scene  in  Auerbach's  Cellar,  a  feat  which  we 
venture  to  say  would  have  been  utterly 
impossible  for  Milton  to  accomplish.  He 
could  be  coarse  when  necessary  for  serious 
purposes,  as  he  was  in  his  reply  to  Salmas- 
ius,  but  not  out  of  mere  frivolity.  In  order 
to  contrast  Milton's  daintiness  with  the 
revelry  of  the  wine  cellar,  let  us  quote  here 
his  sonnet  giving  his  idea  of  conviviality : — 

"Lawrence,  of  virtuous  father  virtuous  son, 
Now  that  the  fields  are  dank  and  ways  are 

mire, 
Where  shall   we  sometimes  meet,  and  by 

the  fire 
Help  waste  a  sullen  day,  what  may  be  won 
From  the  hard  season  gaining?    Time  will 

run 
On  smoother,  till  Favonius  re-inspire 
The  frozen  earth,  and  clothe  in  fresh  attire 
The  lilly  and  rose,  that  neither  sowed  nor 

spun. 
What  neat  repast  shall  feast  us,  light  and 

choice. 


120  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

Of  Attic  taste,  with  wine,  whence  we  may 

rise 
To   hear   the   lute   well   touched,   or   artful 

voice 
Warble  immortal  notes  and  Tuscan  air? 
He  who  of  those  delights  can  judge   and 

spare 
To  interpose  them  oft,  is  not  unwise." 

Goethe's  inner  life  was  full  of  storm  and 
stress.  Milton,  so  far  as  we  can  judge, 
never  had  to  go  through  the  fierce  struggle 
for  self-mastery  which  Goethe  has  so  vividly 
pictured  in  Faust's  advances  to  Gretchen. 
and  he  was  consequently  spared  the  humil- 
iation of  such  a  fall  as  Faust  suffered.  In 
Milton's  case  continence  was  no  great 
virtue.  He  never  realized  in  his  own  ex- 
perience the  full  meaning  of  the  truth  that 
the  man  who  stops  in  a  downward  course  is 
greater  than  he  who  successfully  resists  the 
first  temptation. 

Each  of  these  men  occupied  an  official 
position  in  the  government  and  lived 
through  a  period  of  great  political  upheaval. 
Goethe's    position    was    insignificant    and 


GOETHE  AND  MILTON  121 

needs  no  further  notice.  Milton,  hearing 
the  rumblings  of  the  approaching  conflict 
while  in  Italy,  hastened  home  from  his 
travels,  dropped  his  cherished  studies  and 
his  poetry  and  threw  himself  with  absolute 
devotion  on  the  side  of  what  was  then 
progress.  He  was  ill-fitted  for  such  rough 
and  tumble  strife,  a  thing  which  many  of  us 
make  into  an  excuse  for  shirking  duty  at 
the  present  time.  Even  when  using  his  pen 
in  support  of  the  commonwealth  as  Crom- 
well's Foreign  Secretary,  he  felt  as  though 
he  were  working  only  with  his  left  hand, 
as  he  expresses  it.  Yet  with  this  left  hand 
he  wrote  the  Defense  of  the  English  People 
and  completely  demolished  Salmasihs  and 
the  whole  crew  of  royal  apologists. 

Read  his  stern  protest  in  Cromwell's 
name  to  the  Prince  of  Piedmont  against  the 
massacre  of  the  Waldenses  and  warning 
against  any  further  attem.pt  to  coerce  them 
on  account  of  their  religion  (which  was 
heeded)  ;  compare  this  vigorous  action  with 
the  passive  attitude  of  the  so-called 
American  Commonwealth  towards  the 
massacres  that  have  been  going  on  now  for 


122  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

years  in  Russia  and  see  how  faint  censure 
here  amounts  to  practical  approval  of  those 
atrocities ;  see  how  our  milksop  statesmen 
and  presidential  candidates,  traveling  in 
Russia,  hobnob  with  the  authorities  who  are 
responsible  for  these  things ;  and  then  figure 
out  if  you  can,  how  long  it  will  take  at  this 
rate  of  backsliding  for  bourgeois  democracy 
to  reach  the  goal  of  Liberty. 

For  twenty  years  Milton  fought  the  good 
fight,  and  after  working  himself  blind  and 
seeing  his  cause  temporarily  defeated,  he 
withdrew  to  devote  himself  again  to  the 
Muses.  Another  in  his  place  might  easily 
have  given  up  hope  and  lent  his  genius  to 
the  victorious  reaction.  But  not  Milton. 
Although  he  had  got  a  little  ahead  of  the 
procession,  it  was  not  for  him  to  go  back 
to  the  mass.  He  looked  forward  to  the  time 
when  the  body  of  the  procession  would 
catch  up  with  him  and  appreciate  his  work. 
His  last  piece,  the  Grecian-modeled  drama 
Sampson  Agonistes,  breathes  a  spirit  of 
defiance  rather  than  defeat.  Though  un- 
successful he  had  made  no  mistake. 

What   Goethe  would  have  done  had  he 


GOETHE  AND  MILTON  123 

been  drawn  into  the  vortex  of  a  first  rate 
social  war  such  as  the  English  Common- 
wealth, the  French  Revolution  or  the 
struggle  now  going  on  in  Russia,  it  is  im- 
possible to  say.  He  was  never  put  to  the 
test.  As  a  spectator  beyond  the  border  he 
witnessed  the  French  Revolution.  The 
enlightenment  which  took  place  in  the  in- 
tellectual world  preceding  that  outbreak  had 
its  influence  on  him.  Its  restless  and  defiant 
spirit  is  reflected  in  the  character  of  Faust 
in  Part  I.  But  in  later  years  when  the 
popular  cause  had  apparently  failed,  Goethe 
seems  to  have  had  no  higher  political  ideal 
than  a  benevolent  paternalism.  His  moral 
courage  and  convictions  cannot  be  quest- 
ioned ;  but  his  environment  was  un- 
propitious  and  his  mission  seemed  to  lie  in 
another  direction.  It  was  the  ambitious 
scope  of  Part  II  of  Faust,  intended  to  cover 
the  whole  social  activity  of  man,  which 
forced  Goethe  to  venture  to  some  extent  on 
political  ground,  with  indifferent  success, 
as  we  have  tried  to  show. 

Goethe    could    have    learned    something 
from  Milton  about  politics  and  also  about 


124  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

cultivating  the  sense  of  duty  and  educating 
the  conscience,  instead  of  merely  running 
through  the  world,  as  Faust  boasts  to  Care. 
But  in  some  things  Goethe  shows  a  long 
advance  over  Milton : — he  had  freed  him- 
self not  only  from  scholastic  austerity  and 
the  slavish  imitation  of  classical  literature, 
but  also  from  dogmatic  theology.  For 
Milton  the  Bible  was  the  truth,  the  whole 
truth  and  nothing  but  the  truth ;  although 
he  did  pretty  much  as  he  pleased,  his 
argumentative  skill  was  always  equal  to  the 
task  of  reconciling  his  acts  and  views  with 
the  Bible.  Goethe  too  was  familiar  with 
the  Bible,  but  in  his  day  the  influence  of 
the  dogmatic-metaphysical  was  on  the 
wane  and  the  effect  of  the  evolutionary 
method  was  already  noticeable.  Goethe's 
combination  of  the  romantic  and  the 
classical,  of  the  spirit  and  the  flesh,  gave 
him  broader  human  sympathies.  If  it  was 
the  merit  of  the  Greeks  to  have  first 
represented  the  gods  in  human  form  instead 
of  in  the  earlier  forms  of  animals  and 
monsters,  we  may  say  it  was  Goethe's  merit 
to  have  drawn  both  Lord  and  Devil  from 


GOETHE  AND  MILTON  125 

the  far  away  regions  in  which  they  dwelt 
in  the  strained  imaginations  of  Dante  and 
Milton,  and  brought  them  down  to  earth  to 
talk  and  act  like  human  beings. 
/Milton  sings  of  woman's  fall  as  the  cause 
of  all  our  woe,  and  his  estimation  of  woman 
is  strictly  patriarchal.  She  is  an  inferior 
being.  The  race  ruined  by  her  must  be  re- 
deemed by  a  male,  the  first-born  of  God. 

Goethe's  story  is  the  reverse  of  this.  Re 
shows  us  a  man,  and  a  strong  one  at  that, 
yielding  to  the  devil  and  his  salvation  by  a 
daughter  of  Eve  instead  of  by  the  son  of 
God.  And  the  woman  makes  the  vicarious 
atonement  too;  she  so  loved  the  man  that 
she  not  only  gave  up  all  for  him  in  her  life 
time,  but  died  on  the  block  that  the  re- 
quirements of  "justice"  might  be  fulfilled  to 
the  strict  letter  of  the  law.  It  was  this  that 
made  her  prayers  to  the  mater  gloriosa,  the 
Queen  of  Heaven,  effectual  to  save  Faust's 
soul. 

The  duality  of  sex  seems  to  be  as  great  a 
stumbling  block  in  religion  as  the  duality 
of  mind  and  matter  formerly  was  in  phil- 
osophy.   This  difficulty  has  now  be.'^n  over- 


126  GOETHE'S  FAUST 

come  in  philosophy,  by  the  work  of  bietz- 
gen  and  others,  not  by  denying  to  one  the 
right  of  existence  or  by  sacrificing  one  to  the 
other  or  trying  unnaturally  to  force  one  into 
the  category  of  the  other;  but  by  referring 
both  mind  and  matter  to  a  genus  high 
enough  to  include  both,  viz.  the  unifying 
Infinity  or  infinite  Universe.  Nature  is 
large  enough  to  contain  and  unify  all  differ- 
ences and  apparent  opposites.  The  next 
great  poet  who  attempts  anything  on  these 
lines  will  have  to  reconcile  this  duality  of 
sex.  The  abolition  or  reconciliation  of 
economic  classes  will  go  far  towards  clear- 
ing the  way  for  the  reconciliation  of  the 
sexes ;  and  we  suspect  that  instead  of  being 
compelled  to  resort  to  the  expedient  of 
having  one  sex  save  the  other  by  the  sacri- 
fice and  death  of  the  innocent  to  atone  for 
the  guilty,  our  future  poet  will  be  able  to 
find  a  way  by  which  the  whole  race  can 
co-operate  in  harmony  for  the  salvation  of 
all  its  members  of  both  sexes  without  the 
unneccessary  sacrifice  of  any. 

Goethe  had  no  use  for  Christianity.     Al- 
though   Jesus    was    human    enough    to    be 


GOETHE  AND  MILTON  127 

attractive,  yet  in  his  genuine,  original 
character  he  was  too  radical  and  plebeian 
for  Goethe's  purposes ;  and  in  the  distorted 
and  monstrous  character  which  has  been 
foisted  upon  him  by  the  political  hierarchy 
called  the  Church,  putting  the  seal  of 
heaven's  approval  on  every  form  of 
oppression,  he  is  more  like  Mephistopheles 
than  Jesus,  Hence  Goethe  had  to  get 
along  without  him. 

Milton's  theme  is  now  dead.  Paradise 
Lost  was  once  quite  generally  used  as  a 
reading  and  parsing  book  in  schools ;  but 
that  day  is  past.  Goethe's  theme  however 
is  still  fresh  and  will  continue  to  occupy 
reflecting  minds  until  the  abolition  of  class 
society  has  enabled  mankind  to  eat  the  for- 
bidden fruit  of  Knowledge  and  has  revealed 
the  mystery  of  human  "government"  and 
of  Plato's  "wisdom"  and  at  the  same  time 
revealed  the  mystery  of  so-called  Good  and 
Evil. 


[■" 


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M^    MAY2;!1988 
M/IY23J9(8 


MAR  16  IS 


Series  4967 


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